1 Corinthians 5

1 Corinthians 5:1

The apostle proceeds to mention the irregularities: the Corinthian church; and here handleth the twous person, whom he commands them to set communion. 1 Cor. V. 1, to the end.

1 CORINTHIANS V. I.

I HAVE spoken of coming to you with a rod of correction; and it is too probable I may be laid under a necessity of using it, though it be an unwilling necessity. For it is generally reported,ᵃ [that there is] a kind of lewdness among you, and that too such scandalous and enormous lewdness as is not heard of even among the heathen, degenerate as they are, and abandoned as their practices are known to be, even that a certain person should have used criminal converse with his father’s wife.ᵇ One would have imagined that a scandal like this, should have thrown the whole society into distress and humiliation, like the public mourning of a Jewish synagogue on the apostacy or ejection of one of its members; and yet it is said, that ye are puffed up with this spirit of pride and carnality which I have been mentioning and reproving. Should ye not rather have lamented on this sad occasion? and pursued those strenuous measures for reformation which the genius

ᵃ Generally reported.] Dr. Whitby thinks, that the scandalous stories that were generally told among the heathen, of the incestuous practices of primitive Christians, had their original from the misrepresentation of this fact. Many quotations, brought by this learned author, and others, on this text, shew, that incest was held in high abomination among the heathen; and an enormity of this kind is, as well known,) called by Cicero, Scelus

incredibile, & inauditum, an incredible and unheard of wickedness. See also Grot. de Jure Bel. & Pac. Lib. II. Cap. v. § 14, No. 2.

ᵇ Criminal converse.] Probably some father had parted with his wife, perhaps provoked by her indiscretion, and his son, to whom she was mother in law, had married her; for by 2 Cor. vii 12, it seems probable, the person injured was yet alive.

and exhorts them to deliver him to Satan,

of the gospel so evidently dictates, that he who hath committed this fact should be taken away from you, and be no longer allowed to continue in your communion? But however negligent you have been, and whatever consequence I draw upon myself, by interposing in this affair, I cannot, I will not be silent. I am absent indeed in body, and therefore cannot take those vigorous steps which my zeal for the honour of Christ, and my tender concern for your reputation and happiness dictate: but I am present in spirit; c I have a distinct view of all the circumstances of the case, and therefore in as determinate a manner, as if I were actually present, I have judged and passed sentence on him who I know has indeed committed this enormity. And the sentence I have passed is this: That ye being all solemnly gathered together in full assembly, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and my spirit being present with you, with the efficacious power of our Lord Jesus Christ, acting according to my determination, though I be at such a distance, and being ready to add an awful efficacy and sanction to your censure, Do, by a public and express act, deliver such an one by name to Satan, d to be by him, as the terrible executioner of the Divine justice and displeasure, chastised and tormented, in order to the destruction of the flesh, that, for this shameful indulgence of its lascivious appetites and desires, it may be emaciated and enfeebled, and the offender, alarmed by sufferings of so extraordinary and formidable a nature, if possible, may be brought to true repentance and humiliation, that so the immortal spirit may be saved in the

] Some think this ordinary gift which scerning clearly and at was done at a disol. ii. 5; 2 Kings v. ee Dr. Benson’s Hist.

an one to Satan, &c.] s Satan is considered who are not under that is, in the church e, who was cut off st of course be deliv-

ered over to Satan; but it seems more reasonable to believe, that the fers to the infliction of some bodily or diseases, in which Satan might the instrument of the Divine j Compare 1 Tim i. 20, and this was destruction of the flesh; not directly fleshly principle, for in that sense it not be opposed to the saving the s the day of the Lord; but probably the paraphrase intimates, for the ating and enfeebling the powers of nature.

Lest a litt e eaven should leaven the whole l

day of the Lord Jesus, from those infinitely more insupportable and everlasting agonies to which it might otherwise be doomed.

And give me leave on this occasion farther to tell you, that your boasting, whether of such a person as your friend, if he be remarkable for any peculiar distinction in gifts, abilities and circumstances, or against him, as your enemy, if he be of an opposite faction, [is] not by any means good. Do you not know, in a familiar instance, which it may be profitable for you to recollect, that a little leaven quickly diffuses itself by a secret fermentation, till it leaveneth the whole mass. Thus will evil examples tend to spread in the church; and if a brand of infamy be not quickly set upon the incorrigible offender, wickedness will grow familiar, and lose its horror; so that many other members of your society may be polluted, insnared and dishonoured. Set yourselves therefore with a resolution and diligence, like that which the Jews shew, in all their dwellings, when the annual feast of the passover is approaching, to purge out the old leaven: search for it, as it were, with lighted candles, wherever you suspect any of it to lurk unobserved, that ye may indeed be entirely a new mass, as ye are by your Christian profession unleavened, let there be no mixture of any thing inconsistent with that simplicity and purity which the gospel teaches.

It is a diligence and resolution that becomes you; for we have not only the Divine command to enforce it, but this tender additional obligation, that even Christ our passover was slain for us. He hath made his precious blood the price of our redemption, that he might make it the means of our sanctification, and that we, instead of being smitten by the sword of the

• Your boasting is not good.] L’Enfant could read it interrogatively, Have you not a fine subject for boasting? which is indeed more animated than our version; but I think, not in the taste and manner of St. Paul, nor does it seem exactly to suit the original.

f Christ our passover was slain.] It is well known, that Justin Martyr, in his

dialogue with Trypho the Jew, accuses the Jews with having taken out of the book of Esdras the following words, “The passover is our Saviour, and our refuge” L’Enfant thinks these words of St. Paul are an allusion to them. It is a very inconclusive inference of some from this context, that this epistle was written about the time of the passover. Compare chap. xvi. 8.

es them not to be familiar with lew. persons ;

avenging angel, might sit down to a divine banquet in peace. Let us then keep the holy east which he hath at such an expense provided for us, and in which he feedeth us even with his own flesh ; and let us celebrate it in a manner which may do him the greatest honour, and be most pleasing to the adorable Author of our liberty and our happiness ; that is, not with the old stale leaven of uncleanness, so common in your Gentile estate, nor with the leaven of malignity and mischief, which your Judaizing teachers would infuse, though it is as inconsistent with the benevolence, as the other with the purity of the gospel : but avoiding these with the strictest care, keep it with the unleavened [bread] of sincerity and truth ; with the most simple and sincere desire of knowing and practising every branch of our duty ; which if we really have, it will keep us from all these evils, and secure an uniformity of behaviour, honourable to our profession, and agreeable to the glorious scheme and design of its illustrious Author.

In this connection it occurs to me, and I conclude you remember, that I wrote to you an epistle which I sent you before your messengers reached me, that you should not converse with fornicators and lewd persons, or others of ill fame and character. But I think you must apprehend, that by what I then wrote, I intended not entirely to forbid all converse with the lewd people of this world, or with covetous men, or extortioners, or idolaters, among your heathen neighbours ; for then, as these characters so generally prevail among mankind in this degenerate state, you must indeed go out of the world, and seek some solitary abode in the wilderness ; which is what I never intended to require or encourage. But the intent of what I then said, and of what I have now written unto you, is, that if any who is named a Christian brother, be evidently a lewd person, or

Lewd persons.] I have rendered repro, some other species of lewdness, than agn’ lewd persons, in these verses, as I think it what is called simple fornication, detestible as that is. See Vol. I. p. 202, note 6; should be taken in that extent ; his argument concludin yet more strongly against and Vol. II. p. 220, note 6.

and not to eat with such a one, if called a bre

remarkably covetous, or in acts of occasional, though not stated and customary worship, an idolater, or even a railer, who labours to provoke or injures any in their absence by slanderous reports, or a drunkard, and in any other respects, an abandoned sensualist, or rapacious extortioner, you should not converse familiarly, or so much as eat with such an one, in common life, and much less, in such religious solemnities as are peculiar to the church of Christ, which ought ever to be a pure and holy society.

You must understand my caution with such a limitation as this: for what have I to do, as a Christian apostle, to judge those that are without the pale of the church? Of others indeed I may speak; for do not even you, in your more private capacity, judge those that are within? I have taught you, that every private Christian should be concerned in his station to maintain the discipline of the church of Christ, and to bear his testimony against disorderly walkers, which may at present have a place in it. But let it be remembered, that those who are without, God judgeth; and he will find a way, sooner or later, to testify his awful displeasure against them for crimes which they have committed against the law of nature, and that acquaintance with it which he knows they actually had, or might have attained. Therefore in consideration of this, both in one view, and the other, let it be your immediate care, as you regard the peace of the church, and the safety of your own souls, speedily, and with all due solemnity, to take away from among yourselves the wicked person¹ I have mentioned, and any others, whose characters may, like his, be scandalous and infectious.

h Those who are without, God judgeth.] Dr. Whitby thinks this is an oblique reference to the mother in law of the incestuous person, who was a heathen; which, from the apostle’s giving no directions concerning her, is not improbable. But I think, the views of St. Paul in this clause were

more extensive, and have paraphrased the accordingly.

i Take away, &c.] This seems plain to imply, that the Corinthians had a power of excommunication in themselves, as has generally been pleaded by congregational writers from this text.

Reflections on the godly discipline of the Christian church.

IMPROVEMENT.

HAPPY are those churches who have it in their power to exercise godly discipline, and to chase from their communion such members as are its reproach and scandal! Happy they, who having this power, have the courage and fidelity to use it, so as not to be ashamed and condemned by it. Let us not be too much surprised, that offences come, and if there are, even in Christian societies, some enormities beyond what are commonly heard of among the Gentiles. It is no wonder, if such abandon themselves, yea, if they are in righteous judgment abandoned of God, to the uncontrollable rage of their own lusts and corruptions, and the great enemy of souls be suffered to carry them captive at his pleasure. Let it however be our concern, that when this is the case, the wicked person be taken away. And though the extraordinary power which the apostles had, be long ceased, and we cannot deliver over offenders for correction to Satan, as they did, let us take such methods as are still open, for purging the old leaven out of our churches; and O, that we may be enabled to purge it out of our hearts! remembering Christ our Passover, who was slain for us, feeding daily upon him by faith, and keeping the sacred festival, at once with joy and gladness, and with simplicity and sincerity of heart.

Lamentable indeed is it that so many vices should prevail in human nature; that he, who would avoid all society with persons of a bad character, must needs go out of the world. But most lamentable of all, that any one who is called a brother, should be a fornicator, or covetous, an idolator, or railer, a drunkard, or an extortioner. May God preserve us from such detestable crimes, and may he purge out all such spots as these from our feasts of charity! and to that end, may he quicken our zeal to bear a testimony against them, in every such method as suits our relation and circumstances of life! Above all, let not any ever imagine, that being joined in communion with a Christian church, can excuse the guilt of such immoral and scandalous practices, for which the wrath of God comes even upon the children of disobedience among the heathen. God will have his time to judge them that are without; and not only Christians at large, as some may fondly and perhaps profanely be ready to call themselves, but Mahometans and Pagans too, shall find articles like these, sitting upon their souls with a dreadful weight, and if sincere repentance do not make way for pardon, plunging them into the lowest abyss of misery, into a state of everlasting separation from the blessed God, and all his holy and acceptable servants.

VOL. 4

The saints shall judge the wor