1 Corinthians 5
Lipscomb1 Corinthians 5:1
It is actually reported—[It was a matter of common notoriety, talked among the people generally and caused great scandal.]
that there is fornication among you,—With the confluence of strangers and of commerce, were associated the luxury and licentiousness which gave the name of Corinth an infamous notoriety, and which connected in the case of the Temple of Aphrodite with religious rites, requiring licentious acts in its devotees, it is not surprising that such sins would be committed by some of those who professed to be followers of Christ. For sins that are common and popular in a community will trouble a church in that community.
and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles,— Here is a type of licentiousness in the church that was not tolerated among the heathen. [It was held in detestation by them as a shameful and abominable monstrosity.]
that one of you hath his father’s wife.—It is probable that the father had been guilty of the folly of marrying a woman better suited in age for his son. But it was a gross outrage upon chastity and virtue, and yet the church was tolerating it and glorying over it. [The marriage of a son to his stepmother was forbidden among the Jews under the penalty of death (Leviticus 18:8; Leviticus 20:11; Deuteronomy 22:30; Deuteronomy 27:20); and it was a violation of the Roman law and held in abhorrence by them. From the complete silence as to the crime of the woman, it is inferred that she was a heathen.]
1 Corinthians 5:2
And ye are puffed up,—Looseness in faith, heresy, division and strife breed indifference to morality and virtue, and open the way for all shames and sins to follow. So these people in their departures from the faith had admitted all types of immorality. This case was probably among the wealthy and influential, or belonged to an influential party, and instead of condemning him for the sin, they were arrogant, defied criticism, and did not feel that his course was a source of sorrow and shame for the persons sinning and for the church so disgraced and humiliated by the crime. [It does not mean that they were puffed up because of this outrage, but in spite of it. It ought to have humbled them to the dust, and yet they retained their self-satisfied complacency. Their morbid self-importance, which made them so intolerant of petty wrongs (1 Corinthians 6:7), made them tolerant of deep disgrace.]
and did not rather mourn,—[The church should have risen as one man, and gone into a common act of humiliation and mourning, like a family for the death of one of its members. It should have been a day of repentance, on which the whole church before the Lord deplored the scandal committed, and cried to him to lead them to expel the guilty person from the fellowship in irrepressible horror at his conduct.]
that he that had done this deed might be taken away from among you.—That he should be refused fellowship or recognition in the church. Loss of fellowship involved loss of recognition and association among Christians. It should be considered a great disgrace and shame yet to be excluded from the membership of the church of Christ. It is noteworthy that God always holds the man the more guilty party in such sins. It is to the shame of society that this order has been reversed in modern times.
1 Corinthians 5:3
For I verily, being absent in body but present in spirit,— [Paul was fully informed by the Spirit of God in all the circumstances, and instructed by him in the way he should act.] have already as though I were present judged him that hath so wrought this thing,—His spirit was present with them and he had already decided as to the guilt and condemnation of him who had done the deed. [This is a remarkable assertion of apostolic power. After reading this letter, they would know that he who had wrought miracles with such power among them was spiritually and effectually present, and weak though he was in personal appearance and speech, was able to exercise sharp discipline on the whole body, unless they submitted to the voice of God through his mouth.]
1 Corinthians 5:4
in the name of our Lord Jesus,—Acting for and in the stead of the Lord Jesus. [The phrase includes, on the one hand, the denial that the thing was done by virtue of his own authority; and on the other, the claim of the right to act as the representative of Christ.]
ye being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus,—When they were gathered together, Paul himself present in spirit gave his decision in this letter, with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the church acts according to his directions, its action is clothed with the power of Christ. The act of the body in such case is the act of Christ. [A question of much importance is, Does the apostle by the words, “ye being gathered together,” mean that he waits for their assent to his ruling in this matter? Most assuredly not. The whole tone, not only the passage which is now before us, but of the whole epistle up to this point, is that he would have them look upon him as the apostle—the special messenger of Christ—standing towards them in the place of Christ. There is not the faintest hint of making the pronouncing of the sentence dependent on the vote of the assembly which is to be held, as if the apostle’s decision could be annulled by the contrary opinion of a majority.
For his part everything is decided, and with his apostolic competency he has judged to deliver over the offender. There will be joined to Paul, in the assembly which he convokes, “the whole church” (Acts 15:22), to take part in this act.]
1 Corinthians 5:5
to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.—What the deliverance of the body to Satan may mean, how the flesh is destroyed, and what the day of the Lord Jesus is, are questions of doubt and have produced much discussion. It probably means that he was separated from the fellowship of the church, from all association with the brethren in Christ, regarded and treated as a heathen; that by these influences he might be brought to realize the enormity of his sin, and turn from fleshly lusts, and be restored to a life of holiness, and to the fellowship of the church that he might at last be saved. The church by the direction of Paul put him away from among them (2 Corinthians 2:10), and at a later period he directs them to forgive and comfort the one who had been separated from the fellowship, supposed to be the same person, “lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his overmuch sorrow.” (2 Corinthians 2:7). The exclusion from the fellowship of the saints and the privileges of the house of God is a serious and awful matter. When one has been excluded from the fellowship of the church, Christians should make him feel that he forfeits the esteem and association of all the members of the church, yet he should be warned and admonished as a brother. (2 Thessalonians 3:15).
[Disorderly conduct must be dealt with by the church in the way the Lord appoints. Immorality is not to be tolerated among the followers of Christ. The whole action of the church is moral and spiritual, and the extremest infliction it can impose in any case is exclusion from the fellowship. The necessity for exercising such discipline is for the following reasons:
(1) The honor of Christ, which is sadly impeached when open sin is allowed among those who profess to be his followers. To make Christ a minister of sin is a grievous offense.
(2) The welfare of the offender himself is never to be lost sight of. The wise, kindly, deliberate action of the church may save the erring one. And hence, however humiliating and terrible the exclusion may have been, the door is always left open for return. Its object, so far as the offender is concerned, is his recovery, and if he repents and comes to a right state of mind, nothing stands in the way of his restoration to the fellowship.
(3) The welfare of the church requires that the transgressors shall be dealt with. For sin is a spreading leprosy. It may begin in a small obscure place, but unless speedily arrested will increase and diffuse itself till the whole body is infected. A moral gangrene must be cut out.]
1 Corinthians 5:6
Your glorying is not good.—The glorying and self-justification were not good. If not put away from among them, it would soon work the corruption of the whole body.
Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? —As a small quantity of leaven pervades the entire mass of dough and communicates its nature to the whole of that with which it comes in contact, so the least sin tolerated affects the whole church, and communicates its nature to the whole of that with which it comes in contact. It is therefore applied to all sin voluntarily tolerated by the individual or the church. To be indifferent to grave misbehavior is to become partly responsible for it, and to lower the standard of Christian living. [Here the stress of the argument lies less in the evil example of the offender than in the fact that toleration of this conduct implies concurrence (Romans 1:32), and debases the standard of moral judgment and instinct. To be indifferent to grave misbehavior is to become partly responsible for it. A subtle atmosphere, in which evil readily springs up and is diffused, is the result. The leaven that was infecting the Corinthian church was a vitiated public opinion.]
1 Corinthians 5:7
Purge out the old leaven,—Here is an allusion to the order given by Moses (Exodus 12:15; Exodus 12:20; Exodus 13:7) to remove all leaven from the Jewish house before the Passover, and carried out with such scrupulous care that on the fourteenth day of the month they searched with lighted candles even the darkest places in their houses to see whether any remained.
that ye may be a new lump,—The position of Christians is analogous to that of Israel, and they should put away the evil and purge out the leaven of sin that is among them that they may be a pure unleavened lump of holiness.
even as ye are unleavened.—They were purged of the leaven of evil in coming into Christ.
For our passover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ:—As when the passover lamb was sacrificed they must put away the leaven, so Christ is our passover, a perpetual sacrifice for us, so we must put from us the leaven of evil as the children of God.
1 Corinthians 5:8
wherefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven,—Since Christ is our passover, sanctified for us, let us keep the feast perpetually. That is, live holily. The whole life of the Christian should be a joyous and pure feast of services to God in sincerity and truth, none of the old leaven of heathenism being retained in the body, the church. [To the Christian, Christ is a perpetual sacrifice, an ever-present paschal Lamb, demanding and enforcing constant vigilance and unceasing cleanliness. The individual must put away every sinful habit of the old life. The church must purge itself of all whose lives are sources of corruption.] neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness,—[Malice is ill will in the mind; wickedness is ill will expressed in action.]
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity—[The word “sincere” sets forth before the mind the material image from which the spiritual quality takes its name. The honey free from the smallest particle of wax, pure and transparent. The word used here conveys a similar idea. It is derived from the custom of judging the purity of liquids or the texture of cloths by holding them between the eye and the sun. What is here set forth as necessary to the Christian character is a quality which can stand this extreme test, and does not need to be seen only in an artificial light. It brings before us a pure transparent sincerity which is genuine; and acceptance of Christ which is real, and which is rich in real results.] and truth.—[This means far more than veracity.
In its subjective sense, it means the inward state which answers to truth; fullness, straightforwardness, integrity of purpose; that moral and spiritual condition which conforms to the law and character of God. All corresponds to an unsullied, uncontaminated, and genuine Christian character.]
1 Corinthians 5:9
I wrote unto you in my epistle—Some think he means that he had so written them in this letter. This the expression would not allow, for he intends to modify now directions hitherto given. So Paul had doubtless written a letter to them before this, in which he had given the directions here noted.
to have no company with fornicators;—A fornicator is one who has sexual intercourse with an unmarried person, but the word is frequently used to denote all unlawful intercourse. (Matthew 5:32; Matthew 19:9). To have company with is to associate with and treat one as worthy of companionship and association. The Christian is not to treat the guilty person as such. The object, no doubt, is to make the fornicator feel the disgrace and shame of his course and bring him to repentance.
1 Corinthians 5:10
not at all meaning with the fornicators of this world,— He now modifies the command so as to apply to fornicators in the church and not to those in the world.
or with the covetous—The covetous are those who seek to obtain what is another’s in an unlawful way. The man who sacrifices honesty to the acquisition of wealth is heinous in the sight of God. He cannot be a Christian and should not be recognized as such.
and extortioners,—An extortioner is one who by power or threats takes what is not his own or more than is right. The man who takes advantage of another’s poverty, or his necessities, to obtain exorbitant gain, is an extortioner.
or with idolaters;—Prior to the preaching of the gospel in Corinth, by Paul, all the inhabitants therein, with the exception of a few Jews, were idolaters.
for then must ye needs go out of the world:—He did not mean to so treat those guilty of the sins just mentioned. They were so common among the people that if they refused to associate with them it would be like going out of the world, withdrawing as a recluse, having no association or dealing with mankind.
1 Corinthians 5:11
but as it is, I wrote unto you not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one no, not to eat.—Personal association with those claiming to be Christians guilty of these sins is prohibited. [Christians must tolerate no such sins among themselves; they must exclude from the social circle any one who, bearing the name of Christ, indulges in these vices of the heathen world. The church is to be the light of the world and not the recipient of the world’s darkness.]
The question is sometimes raised as to whether the eating means the Lord’s Supper or a common meal. The context plainly shows that it means the latter. The association here forbidden with the sinner calling himself a Christian is permitted to men of the world guilty of the same sins. But we are not permitted to eat the Lord’s Supper with the sinners without. Therefore, this cannot refer to the Lord’s Supper, but must refer to an ordinary meal. Then, too, to eat a common meal with a man was to acknowledge him as a worthy equal. The Jews would not eat with the publicans and sinners, and strongly condemned Jesus for doing so.
1 Corinthians 5:12
For what have I to do with judging them that are without?—[They should have easily understood his meaning, for it was well known to them that] he had nothing to do with judging those not members of the church. [The phrase “them that are without” is frequently used by Paul (1 Thessalonians 4:12; Colossians 4:5), and their awful condition he graphically describes as follows: “Ye were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” (Ephesians 2:12).]
Do not ye judge them that are within?—As churches they were to look after and deal with those within that they might be kept from evil influences. [Their own practice should have saved them from misunderstanding him. It is possible that his meaning had been purposely wrested by interested persons to bring discredit upon his teaching concerning fornicators.]
1 Corinthians 5:13
But them that are without God judgeth.—They were to leave those without to the judgment of God.
Put away the wicked man from among yourselves.—In pursuance of the truth set forth here, he commands them to put from them this wicked person, who had taken his own father’s wife. There was no choice left the church. It must do just what Paul under the guidance of the Spirit directed them to do. There was no voting, but obedience to plain directions in carrying out the case.