Daily Devotions to Encourage Your Walk With Jesus

Who’s At Your Table

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Most of us assume that love always means showing up, sitting down, and saying hello. But the apostle Paul challenges that assumption in a way that might make you uncomfortable at first. Here is what the Bible says about who belongs at your table and why it matters more than you think.

What Does 1 Corinthians 5 Actually Say?

“But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of a brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler. Not even to eat with such a one.” – 1 Corinthians 5:11

That is a hard verse. But before you dismiss it, consider what Paul is actually getting at and why it is rooted in love, not judgment.

Can Choosing Not to Sit Down Be the Loving Thing to Do?

Imagine walking into a restaurant and spotting someone you know from church. Your first instinct is to go say hello. But you know this person is in the middle of an unrepentant affair that has already devastated two families and torn apart a church community. Do you walk over anyway?

Sometimes, not sitting down is the most loving thing you can do. It lets someone feel the weight of what they are missing. It communicates, without a word, that something is wrong and that the relationship cannot simply carry on as if nothing happened.

This is not about being cold or self-righteous. It is about refusing to send the message that everything is fine when it is not.

Didn’t Jesus Eat With Sinners? What About Grace?

This is the question that always comes up. Jesus did not condemn the woman caught in adultery, so why should we withhold fellowship from anyone?

Here is what often gets left out of that story. Jesus asked, “Where are your accusers?” He recognized that the Pharisees were using her. They did not even bring the man. And then He told her clearly, “Go and sin no more.”

Grace and truth never work without each other. What some people want is for someone to act like everything is fine. But Jesus did not do that. He offered full grace and full truth at the same time. Loving someone well sometimes means refusing to make them comfortable in something that is hurting them and others.

Who Is Paul Actually Talking About Here?

This is an important distinction. Paul is not talking about your coworkers, the parents at your kid’s soccer game, or your neighbors. He is not telling you to cut off the world.

He is talking about your inner circle. The people you do life with. The ones you invite to the barbecue. And specifically, he is talking about fellow believers, people who bear the name of brother or sister in Christ.

This is not about banning someone from walking through the church doors. Anyone can come to church. It is about what it means to be woven into the life of the church family. That kind of belonging comes with accountability.

Why Does Paul Draw This Line? Two Clear Reasons

• To protect the fellowship. Unrepentant sin causes others to stumble and divides the body of Christ. It spreads.
• To avoid sending the wrong message. Welcoming unrepentant sin into the life of the church signals approval. The behavior continues, and someone else gets hurt, often an entire family.

We often think we can love people out of sin. Too often, we are just making them comfortable in it.

Why Did “Not Even to Eat With Such a One” Carry So Much Weight?

In today’s culture, grabbing a meal with someone is casual. But in Middle Eastern culture at the time Paul was writing, sharing a meal was something else entirely. Meals took hours. They were filled with laughter, celebration, and belonging. To share a table meant you were welcomed into the family.

Being shut out of that table was not a small thing. It was the clearest possible signal that something needed to change before full restoration could happen.

The church is meant to be that kind of family. A family that loves well also knows how to say, “Not like this. Not yet. Come home first.”

How Do Your Relationships Shape Your Faith?

The business world tells you to surround yourself with people smarter than you so you will grow. Schools tell you to find people who accept you as you are. But in the church, the goal is to surround yourself with people who will make you more like Jesus.

The hard truth is that you rarely pull someone up to where you are. More often, they pull you down. Many people never see the calling on their lives come to fruition because they could not break free from relationships that dragged them away from it.

Some people are openly hostile to your faith. Others are quieter about it. They schedule things during church, roll their eyes at your Bible study, or call you a Jesus freak. God is not asking you to cut off your friends or family entirely. But He may be asking you to step back, have some honest conversations, and make some changes.

Whoever makes the cut for your inner circle should be vetted by scripture, not just by how long you have known them.

Life Application

This week, ask the Lord to show you clearly which relationships are drawing you closer to Him and which ones are pulling you away. Take an honest look at your inner circle. Are the people closest to you making you more like Jesus? Or are you slowly drifting to accommodate relationships that are moving you in the wrong direction?

If you are the one who has drifted, remember this: the door is not shut. Jesus told the woman caught in adultery to go and sin no more because He wanted her back. The call to accountability is always paired with the call to come home.

Here are a few questions to sit with this week:

• Who is at my table, and are those relationships making me more like Christ?
• Is there a relationship in my life where I have been making someone comfortable in something harmful rather than lovingly speaking truth?
• Am I the one who has drifted? Is there a community or a person I need to return to?
• Am I confusing grace with simply avoiding hard conversations?

Love does not always look like sitting down. Sometimes the most faithful thing you can do is let someone feel what they are missing, and trust that God will use that to bring them home.