1 Corinthians 5
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
B. Moral Disorders[a]
Chapter 5
A Case of Incest.[b] 1 It is widely reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of a kind not found even among pagans—a man living with his father’s wife.(A) 2 And you are inflated with pride.[c] Should you not rather have been sorrowful? The one who did this deed should be expelled from your midst. 3 I, for my part, although absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as if present, pronounced judgment on the one who has committed this deed,(B) 4 in the name of [our] Lord Jesus: when you have gathered together and I am with you in spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus, 5 you are to deliver this man to Satan[d] for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.(C)
6 (D)Your boasting is not appropriate. Do you not know that a little yeast[e] leavens all the dough? 7 [f]Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough, inasmuch as you are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.(E) 8 Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.(F)
9 [g]I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people, 10 not at all referring to the immoral of this world or the greedy and robbers or idolaters; for you would then have to leave the world.(G) 11 But I now write to you not to associate with anyone named a brother, if he is immoral, greedy, an idolater, a slanderer, a drunkard, or a robber, not even to eat with such a person.(H) 12 For why should I be judging outsiders? Is it not your business to judge those within? 13 God will judge those outside. “Purge the evil person from your midst.”(I)
Footnotes
- 5:1–6:20 Paul now takes up a number of other matters that require regulation. These have come to his attention by hearsay (1 Cor 5:1), probably in reports brought by “Chloe’s people” (1 Cor 1:11).
- 5:1–13 Paul first deals with the incestuous union of a man with his stepmother (1 Cor 5:1–8) and then attempts to clarify general admonitions he has given about associating with fellow Christians guilty of immorality (1 Cor 5:9–13). Each of these three brief paragraphs expresses the same idea: the need of separation between the holy and the unholy.
- 5:2 Inflated with pride: this remark and the reference to boasting in 1 Cor 5:6 suggest that they are proud of themselves despite the infection in their midst, tolerating and possibly even approving the situation. The attitude expressed in 1 Cor 6:2, 13 may be influencing their thinking in this case.
- 5:5 Deliver this man to Satan: once the sinner is expelled from the church, the sphere of Jesus’ lordship and victory over sin, he will be in the region outside over which Satan is still master. For the destruction of his flesh: the purpose of the penalty is medicinal: through affliction, sin’s grip over him may be destroyed and the path to repentance and reunion laid open. With Paul’s instructions for an excommunication ceremony here, contrast his recommendations for the reconciliation of a sinner in 2 Cor 2:5–11.
- 5:6 A little yeast: yeast, which induces fermentation, is a natural symbol for a source of corruption that becomes all-pervasive. The expression is proverbial.
- 5:7–8 In the Jewish calendar, Passover was followed immediately by the festival of Unleavened Bread. In preparation for this feast all traces of old bread were removed from the house, and during the festival only unleavened bread was eaten. The sequence of these two feasts provides Paul with an image of Christian existence: Christ’s death (the true Passover celebration) is followed by the life of the Christian community, marked by newness, purity, and integrity (a perpetual feast of unleavened bread). Paul may have been writing around Passover time (cf. 1 Cor 16:5); this is a little Easter homily, the earliest in Christian literature.
- 5:9–13 Paul here corrects a misunderstanding of his earlier directives against associating with immoral fellow Christians. He concedes the impossibility of avoiding contact with sinners in society at large but urges the Corinthians to maintain the inner purity of their own community.
1 Corinthians 5
World English Bible
5 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father’s wife. 2 You are arrogant, and didn’t mourn instead, that he who had done this deed might be removed from among you. 3 For I most certainly, as being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has done this thing. 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together with my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 you are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump? 7 Purge out the old yeast, that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place. 8 Therefore let’s keep the feast, not with old yeast, neither with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote to you in my letter to have no company with sexual sinners; 10 yet not at all meaning with the sexual sinners of this world, or with the covetous and extortionists, or with idolaters, for then you would have to leave the world. 11 But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortionist. Don’t even eat with such a person. 12 For what do I have to do with also judging those who are outside? Don’t you judge those who are within? 13 But those who are outside, God judges. “Put away the wicked man from among yourselves.”(A)
1 Corinthians 5
1599 Geneva Bible
5 1 That they have winked at him who committed incest with his mother-in-law, 2, 6 he showeth should cause them rather to be ashamed, than to rejoice: 10 Such kind of wickedness is to be punished with excommunication, 12 lest others be infected with it.
1 It [a]is heard certainly that there is fornication among you: and such fornication as is not once named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.
2 [b]And ye are puffed up, and have not rather sorrowed, that he which hath done this deed, might be put from among you.
3 [c]For I verily as absent in body, but present in [d]spirit, have determined already as though I were present, that he that hath thus done this thing,
4 When ye are gathered together, and my spirit, in the [e]Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that such one, I say, [f]by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
5 [g]Be [h]delivered unto Satan, for the [i]destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
6 [j]Your rejoicing [k]is not good: know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
7 [l]Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new [m]lump, as ye are unleavened: for Christ our [n]Passover is sacrificed for us.
8 Therefore let us keep the [o]feast, not with old leaven, neither in the leaven of maliciousness and wickedness: but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 [p]I wrote unto you in an Epistle, that ye should not company together with fornicators,
10 And not [q]altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or with extortioners, or with idolaters: for then ye must go out of the world.
11 But now I have written unto you, that ye company not together: if any that is called a brother, be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such one eat not.
12 [r]For what have I to do to judge them also which are without? do ye not judge them that are within?
13 But God judgeth them that are without. Put away therefore from among yourselves that wicked man.
Footnotes
- 1 Corinthians 5:1 They are greatly to be reprehended which by suffering of wickedness, set forth the Church of God to be mocked and scorned as the infidels.
- 1 Corinthians 5:2 There are none more proud, than they that least know themselves.
- 1 Corinthians 5:3 Excommunication ought not to be committed to one man’s power, but must be done by the authority of the whole Congregation, after that the matter is diligently examined.
- 1 Corinthians 5:3 In mind, thought, and will.
- 1 Corinthians 5:4 Calling upon Christ his Name.
- 1 Corinthians 5:4 There is no doubt but that judgment is ratified in heaven, wherein Christ himself sitteth as Judge.
- 1 Corinthians 5:5 The excommunicate is delivered to the power of Satan, in that, that he is cast out of the house of God.
- 1 Corinthians 5:5 What it is to be delivered to Satan, the Lord himself declareth when he saith, Let him be unto thee as an Heathen and Publican, Matt 18:17, that is to say, to be disfranchised, and put out of the right and liberty of the city of Christ, which is the Church, without which Satan is lord and master.
- 1 Corinthians 5:5 The end of excommunication is not to cast away the excommunicate, that he should utterly perish, but that he may be saved, to wit, that by this means his flesh may be tamed, that he may learn to live to the Spirit.
- 1 Corinthians 5:6 Another end of excommunication is, that others be not infected, and therefore it must of necessity be retained in the Church, that the one be not infected by the other.
- 1 Corinthians 5:6 Is naught, and not grounded upon good reason, as though you were excellent, and yet there is such wickedness found amongst you.
- 1 Corinthians 5:7 By alluding to the ceremony of the Passover, he exhorteth them to cast out that unclean person from amongst them. In times past, saith he, it was not lawful for them which did celebrate the Passover, to eat leavened bread: insomuch that he was holden as unclean and unworthy to eat the Passover, whosoever had but tasted of leaven. Now our whole life must be as it were the feast of unleavened bread, wherein all they that are partakers of that immaculate Lamb which is slain, must cast out both of themselves, and also out of their houses and Congregations all impurity.
- 1 Corinthians 5:7 By lump he meaneth the whole body of the Church, every member whereof must be unleavened bread, that is, be renewed in spirit, by plucking away the old corruption.
- 1 Corinthians 5:7 The Lamb of our Passover.
- 1 Corinthians 5:8 Let us lead our whole life, as it were a continual feast, honestly and uprightly.
- 1 Corinthians 5:9 Now he speaketh more generally; and that which he spake before of the incestuous person, he showeth that it pertaineth to others, which are known to be wicked, and such as through their naughty life are a slander to the Church, which ought also by lawful order be cast out of the community of the Church. And making mention of eating meat, either he meaneth those feasts of love whereat the Supper of the Lord was received, or else their common usage and manner of life which is rightly to be taken, lest any man should think that either matrimony were broken by excommunication, or such duties hindered and cut off thereby, as we owe one to another: children to their parents, subjects to their rulers, servants to their masters, and neighbor to neighbor, to win one another to God.
- 1 Corinthians 5:10 If you should utterly abstain from such men’s company, you should go out of the world: therefore I speak of them which are in the very bosom of the Church, which must be called home by discipline, and not of them which are without, with whom we must labor by all means possible, to bring them to Christ.
- 1 Corinthians 5:12 Such as are false brethren, ought to be cast out of the Congregation: as for them which are without, they must be left to the judgment of God.
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