1 Corinthians 5

CHAPTER 5

Immorality in the Church (5:1-13)

1 The citizens of Corinth were known for their sexual immorality, and this practice of immorality had come into the Corinthian church. Perhaps these new Corinthian Christians had supposed that having put faith in Christ and received salvation they could now behave in any way they pleased. If so, they would naturally begin to fall back into their old wicked customs.

One kind of sexual immorality that was present among the Corinthian Christians was so bad that even the ungodly citizens of Corinth didn’t do it! That is, a man who called himself a Christian was living in adultery with his own stepmother! (Deuteronomy 22:30; 27:20). But there was another thing almost as bad: all the other Christians were tolerating this immorality; they didn’t even care about it. That such a sin was present among them didn’t seem to bother them at all.

2 In Chapter 4, Paul wrote about the arrogance of the Corinthians. Their arrogance was so great that they had begun to take pride in their own sins! Instead of being proud, they should have been mourning. Any man continuing in such a sin should have been immediately and publicly expelled from the church.

3 Paul was present with the Corinthians in spirit (see Colossians 2:5). All Christians can have spiritual fellowship with one another, even though they are not physically together.

Paul says that he has already passed JUDGMENT on the person who was committing adultery with his stepmother. What does Paul mean by this? Jesus Himself commanded: “Do not judge” (Matthew 7:1). Is Paul opposing a command of Jesus? Even Paul himselftaught that Christians must not judge each other (Romans 14:4,13). Is he now opposing his own teaching?

No, Paul is not opposing Jesus’ command or his own teaching. The confusion arises because there are two distinct kinds of judgment: One kind of judgment is the judgment of a man’s outward work or behavior; the second kind of judgment is the judgment of a man’s inward character and motives. Jesus’ command, “Do not judge,” refers to this second kind of judgment, the judgment of the inner man.

It is necessary and proper to “judge,” or assess, a man’s outward visible work and behavior; but it is wrong to judge the inner man himself. What Paul is really saying here is that he has passed judgment not on the man himself but on his sin.¹⁰

4-5 Paul’s “judgment” of the man committing adultery with his stepmother was not a final judgment of the man’s soul. It was a judgment or decision concerning his sin at that particular time. Paul’s judgment (decision) was that the man should be expelled from the church. But, says Paul, the Christians must expel the man only after assembling in the name of our Lord and only when the power of our Lord Jesus is present (verse 4).

The Corinthian Christians are to hand this man over to SATAN (verse 5). There are only two kingdoms a man can belong to—Satan’s kingdom and God’s kingdom—and a man belongs to either one or the other. If a man is expelled from one kingdom, he automatically ends up in the other. Any man who continues knowingly in sin does not belong to God’s kingdom; he belongs to Satan’s kingdom (1 John 3:8-9). Therefore, Paul says that this man must be transferred to Satan’s kingdom.

Paul’s hope is that this man, by being expelled, will come to hate his sin and repent of it, so that in the final judgment—on the day of the Lord—he might be saved (see 1 Timothy 1:20).

This man is to be handed over to Satan so that the sinful nature may be destroyed. Man’s sinful nature¹¹ will be finally destroyed only at death. But through the sickness and suffering caused by Satan prior to death, a man can become repentant; and if he repents of his sins and turns in faith to Jesus he will be saved (Proverbs 23:14).

Thus we see there are two reasons why this sinful man should be expelled from the Corinthian church: first, to purif y the church, which is God’s holy temple (1 Corinthians 3:16-17); and second, to bring the sinful man to repentance, so that his eternal spirit might be saved.

Notice that, as far as a person’s sin is concerned, there are two conditions necessary before any person is expelled from the church.¹² First, the person’s sin must be a serious sin which is clearly visible and about which there is no question. Second, the person must be continuing in that sin with no sign of repentance. Those that repent of their sins should not be expelled from the church.

Remember, Paul does not despise this man who is to be expelled; he despises only his sin. There is a saying: It is not the child we beat, but the child’s bad behavior. There is some truth to this saying. When we expel a person from the church, our purpose is not so much to expel the person as to expel his sin. It is primarily to cleanse the church of sin that we must expel the person. But the moment that person truly repents of his sin, we must forgive him and fully accept him back into the church. In fact, this is exactly what happened in the case of the man mentioned in this section (see 2 Corinthians 2:5-11 and comment).

6 Paul here compares sin in the church to yeast in a batch of dough. Yeast is actually a microscopic organism, a fungus. If some of these yeast organisms are mixed with a batch of dough, they will spread throughout the entire batch and cause it to expand or swell up as the dough is baked. Thus a little bit of yeast changes the entire loaf. In the Bible, the word yeast is commonly used as a symbol of sin or evil (see Mark 8:15).

Paul has mentioned two main sins in the Corinthian church: pride and sexual immorality. Just as a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough, so these two sins (and other sins also) will spread through the whole church and defile it (see Galatians 5:9).

7-8 Get rid of the old yeast of sin and evil, Paul tells the Corinthian Christians. Expel not only this sinful man from your church, but also expel the sin from your own hearts!

Get rid of the old yeast, that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. The Corinthian Christians (and all other Christians) have been made new spiritually; they are a new batch of dough. Therefore, they should be without the old yeast of sin. We Christians are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are also God’s temple (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). Therefore, there is no place in us for old yeast!

For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed (verse 7). The word Passover means “deliverance.” In Moses’ time, the Jews lived in bondage in Egypt. To force the Egyptian ruler to set the Jews free, God sent many plagues upon the Egyptian people, the last of which was to cause the death of all the firstborn in Egypt, both of men and of animals. However, so that their own firstborn might be spared, the Jews sacrificed a lamb and painted its blood on their doorways (Exodus 12:6-8). Thus, when God sent His angel to kill all the firstborn of Egypt, the angel saw the blood on the Jewish homes and “passed over” their homes, sparing their firstborn (Exodus 12:12-13). In the morning the Egyptian ruler, filled with fear, let the Jews go free. Thus were the Jews delivered from bondage, and to this day they remember the event by celebrating the Passover (deliverance) festival.

On the night of their deliverance, together with the lamb they had sacrificed, the Jews also ate bread made without yeast (Exodus 12:8). God told them that they must thereafter, in remembrance of their deliverance, celebrate the Passover festival¹³ each year (Exodus 12:14). During the period of the festival, they were to remove all yeast from their homes (Exodus 12:15). The reason was because the yeast was a sign of the sins of Egypt. In the same way, yeast was a sign of the sins in the Corinthian church.

Paul here calls Jesus Christ our Passover lamb (John 1:36). Through Jesus’ death, through His blood, God has delivered us from bondage to sin, just as He delivered the Jews from bondage in Egypt (see 1 Peter 1:18-19). And just as those Jews had to eat their sacrificed lamb with bread made without yeast, so also must we keep the Festival (partake of Christ’s life) with bread without yeast—that is, without the yeast of malice and wickedness (verse 8). The bread without yeast is the bread of sincerity and truth.

Instead of the Jewish Passover festival, Christians celebrate Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus was put to death during the Passover festival. He Himself became the sacrif ice for our “Passover,” for our deliverance from sin.

But we Christians don’t keep (celebrate) the Passover just one day or one week a year. We celebrate it continuously every day of the year. In fact, the Greek word keep which Paul uses here literally means “continue to keep.” Therefore, if we are going to keep the (Passover) Festival each day of the year, we are also going to need to keep removing each day the old yeast of malice and wickedness from our hearts and from our church!

9-10 Paul refers here in verse 9 to an earlier letter that has been lost. This is not the same as the other lost letter referred to in 2 Corinthians 2:3-4.

In the letter referred to here in verse 9, Paul had written to the Corinthians that they must not associate at all with sexually immoral people. Paul’s meaning was that they shouldn’t associate with sexually immoral people who called themselves Christians. However, when it came to associating with sexually immoral people who were not Christians and who were outside the church, that was a different matter. It was necessary to associate with these non-believers, because otherwise one would never get a chance to share the Gospel with them. Christ Himself associated with sinners (see Mark 2:15-17). If we had to avoid associating with all sinners in this world, we’d have to leave the world! (see John 17:15).

11 Here Paul further explains the meaning of his previous letter: The Corinthian Christians must not associate with anyone who calls himself a (Christian) brother, and who also continually does these other evil things listed in this verse (see 2 Thes-salonians 3:6). With such a man do not even eat; that is, have no association with him whatever. Such a man must be expelled from the church (verse 13).

Sin coming into the church from the outside is indeed a great danger; but a far greater danger exists from sin that arises within the church. That sin is like yeast, which quickly spreads and makes the entire church impure.

12-13 Making judgments or decisions about people outside the church (unbelievers) is not the business of Christians. God will judge those outside. It is the believers’ responsibility, however, to judge or make decisions about those inside the church. This responsibility to “judge” fellow Christians applies only to judging their outward behavior, not their inward being (see verse 3 and comment).

This judging should be done only by those in the church who are properly authorized to give discipline—which in some churches could be the entire congregation acting as one body (verse 4). In the case of a church member who is living in sin, the other church members have the responsibility to expel that person in order to keep the church pure.

But remember that the judgment Paul is speaking of here involves only judging outward actions, not man’s inner self. God alone is worthy and able to judge man himself.