1 Corinthians 5:1-11

Immorality Rebuked

1 It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has 1his father's wife.
2 You 2have become arrogant and have not 3mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be 4removed from your midst.
3 For I, on my part, though 5absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present.
4 6In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, 7with the power of our Lord Jesus,
5 I have decided to 8deliver such a one to 9Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in 10the day of the Lord Jesus.
6 11Your boasting is not good. 12Do you not know that 13a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?
7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our 14Passover also has been sacrificed.
8 Therefore let us celebrate the feast, 15not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote you in my letter 16not to associate with immoral people;
10 I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with 17idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.
11 But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called 18brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or 19an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler -not even to eat with such a one.

1 Corinthians 5:1-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 CORINTHIANS 5

In this chapter the apostle blames the Corinthians for conniving at a sin committed by one of their members; declares what he was determined to do, and what should be done by them in this case; and in general advises to shun conversation with wicked men; in 1Co 5:1 mention is made of the sin committed by one among themselves, and which was publicly known, and commonly talked of; and which in general was fornication, and particularly incest, a man lying with his father's wife; and which is aggravated by its being what was not named, or could not be named among any virtuous persons among the Gentiles without offence: and yet the members of this church, at least the majority of them, were unconcerned at it, and were so far from mourning over it, and taking any step to remove the person from them that had done it, that they were swelled with pride, and gloried on account of their gifts, and perhaps on account of this man, who had committed the iniquity, 1Co 5:2. This affair being related to the apostle, though at a distance; and he well knowing all things concerning it, as though he was present, resolved what should be done in this case by himself, 1Co 5:3 and that was to deliver the man to Satan, in the name, and with the power and authority of Christ, when the members of this church were gathered together, and his Spirit with them; the end of which was for the destruction of the man's body, and the salvation of his soul, 1Co 5:4,5 and then the apostle returns to blame them for their glorying in men, and in external gifts, and pleading these as a reason why the man should be continued, and not removed from them; not considering the danger they were exposed to, and which he illustrates by the simile of leaven, a little of which affects the whole lump: suggesting thereby the danger they were in by continuing such a wicked person among them, 1Co 5:6 wherefore pursuing, the same metaphor, taken from the Jewish passover, he exhorts to remove from them the man that had sinned, as the Jews at the passover removed the leaven out of their houses; that so they might appear to be a church renewed, and purged, and clear of leaven, keeping the true and spiritual passover, which they were under obligation to do, since Christ, the antitype of the passover, was sacrificed for them, 1Co 5:7 wherefore it became them to keep the feast of the Lord's supper; and indeed, to have the whole course of their conversation so ordered, as to avoid sin and sinners, and to behave in truth and uprightness, 1Co 5:8 when the apostle goes on to put them in mind of what he had formerly written unto them, as suitable to the present case, which was, that they should not keep company with wicked men, particularly with fornicators, such as this man, though in a more heinous manner, 1Co 5:9 and explains what was his meaning; not that they were to have no manner of conversation with persons of such a character, and of such like evil characters, in things of a civil nature, for then there would be no living in the world, 1Co 5:10. But his sense was, that they should keep no company with persons guilty of the sins mentioned, who bore the name of Christian brethren, and were members of the same church state with them, from whose communion they ought to be removed; and indeed, so much familiarity with them should not be indulged, as even to eat with them, 1Co 5:11. The reason of this difference, which he made between wicked men, who were not members of the church, and those that were, is because he had nothing to do, nor they neither, with them that were without the church, as it was their business only to take cognizance of them that were within, 1Co 5:12 but neither of them had anything to do, to judge and censure those that did not belong to the church, but should leave them to God, the righteous Judge; and then closes all, 1Co 5:13 with what he had chiefly in view throughout the whole chapter, and that is, that they would remove from their communion the wicked person who had been guilty of the sin first mentioned.

Cross References 19

  • 1. Leviticus 18:8; Deuteronomy 22:30; Deuteronomy 27:20
  • 2. 1 Corinthians 4:6
  • 3. 2 Corinthians 7:7-10
  • 4. 1 Corinthians 5:13
  • 5. Colossians 2:5; 1 Thessalonians 2:17
  • 6. 2 Thessalonians 3:6
  • 7. John 20:23; 2 Corinthians 2:10; 2 Corinthians 13:3, 10
  • 8. Proverbs 23:14; Luke 22:31; 1 Timothy 1:20
  • 9. Matthew 4:10
  • 10. 1 Corinthians 1:8
  • 11. 1 Corinthians 5:2; James 4:16
  • 12. Romans 6:16
  • 13. Hosea 7:4; Matthew 16:6, 12; Galatians 5:9
  • 14. Mark 14:12; 1 Peter 1:19
  • 15. Exodus 12:19; Exodus 13:7; Deuteronomy 16:3
  • 16. 2 Corinthians 6:14; Ephesians 5:11; 2 Thessalonians 3:6
  • 17. 1 Corinthians 10:27
  • 18. Acts 1:15; 2 Thessalonians 3:6
  • 19. 1 Corinthians 10:7, 14, 20

Footnotes 7

  • [a]. Or "have you...?"
  • [b]. Lit "puffed up"
  • [c]. Or "have you...?"
  • [d]. Lit "my spirit, with the power"
  • [e]. Two early mss do not contain "Jesus"
  • [f]. Lit "now"
  • [g]. Lit "together if any man called a brother is"
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