"I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. "
Jesus was criticized by the religious crowd for interacting with sinners. The religious of Jesus' day would have nothing to do with tax collectors or other seriously immoral people. But Jesus knew that He was sent to minister to these sinners. Today's religious or churched people often act like the religious hypocrites of Jesus' day rather than like Jesus. It was a problem in the first century church, and it is a problem today.
We need to be concerned about our purity. We need to deal with sin in our midst, but we also need to actively pursue ministering the gospel to even the most openly vile of sinners. Failing to do this parallels the building cloisters for ourselves out in the country somewhere away from everyone else. That's not God's plan.
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