1 Corinthians 5-6

Amplified Bible

Immorality Rebuked

5 It is actually reported [everywhere] that there is sexual immorality among you, a kind of immorality that is condemned even among the [unbelieving] Gentiles: that someone ^[a]has [an intimate relationship with] his father’s wife.^{(A) 2} And you are proud and arrogant! You should have mourned in shame so that the man who has done this [disgraceful] thing would be removed from your fellowship!

³ For I, though absent [from you] in body but present in spirit, have already passed judgment on him who has committed this [act], as if I were present. ⁴ In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I am with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, ⁵ you are to ^[b]hand over this man to Satan for the destruction of his body, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

⁶ Your boasting [over the supposed spirituality of your church] is not good [indeed, it is vulgar and inappropriate]. ^[c]Do you not know that [just] a little leaven ferments the whole batch [of dough, just as a little sin corrupts a person or an entire church]? ^7 [d]Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new batch, just as you are, still unleavened. For Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed. ⁸ Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with leaven of vice and malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and [untainted] truth.^(B)

⁹ I wrote you in my [previous] letter not to associate with [sexually] immoral people— ¹⁰ not meaning the immoral people of this world, or the greedy ones and swindlers, or idolaters, for then you would have to get out of the world and human society altogether! ¹¹ But actually, I have written to you not to associate with any so-called [Christian] brother if he is sexually immoral or greedy, or is an idolater [devoted to anything that takes the place of God], or is a reviler [who insults or slanders or otherwise verbally abuses others], or is a drunkard or a swindler—you must not so much as ^[e]eat with such a person.^{(C) 12} For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders (non-believers)? Do you not judge those who are within the church [to protect the church as the situation requires]? ¹³ God alone sits in judgment on those who are outside [the faith]. Remove the wicked one from among you [expel him from your church].^(D)

Lawsuits Discouraged

6 Does any one of you, when he has a ^[f]complaint (civil dispute) with another [believer], dare to go to law before unrighteous men (non-believers) instead of [placing the issue] before the saints (God’s people)? ^2 [g]Do you not know that the saints (God’s people) will [one day] judge the world? If the world is to be judged by you, are you not competent ^[h]to try trivial (insignificant, petty) cases? ³ Do you not know that we [believers] will judge angels? How much more then [as to] matters of this life? ⁴ So if you have lawsuits dealing with matters of this life, are you appointing those as judges [to hear disputes] who are of no account in the church? ⁵ I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is not one wise man among you who [is governed by integrity and] will be able and competent to decide [private disputes] between his fellow believers, ⁶ but instead, brother goes to law against brother, and that before [judges who are] unbelievers?

⁷ Why, the very fact that you have lawsuits with one another is already a defeat. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? ⁸ On the contrary, it is you who wrong and defraud, and you do this even to your brothers and sisters.

⁹ Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; ^[i]neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate [by perversion], nor ^[j]those who participate in homosexuality, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers [whose words are used as weapons to abuse, insult, humiliate, intimidate, or slander], nor swindlers will inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And such were some of you [before you believed]. But you were washed [by the atoning sacrifice of Christ], you were sanctified [set apart for God, and made holy], you were justified [declared free of guilt] in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the [Holy] Spirit of our God [the source of the believer’s new life and changed behavior].

The Body Is the Lord’s

¹² Everything is permissible for me, but not all things are beneficial. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything [and brought under its power, allowing it to control me]. ¹³ Food is for the stomach and the stomach for food, but God will do away with both of them. The body is not intended for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body [to save, sanctify, and raise it again because of the sacrifice of the cross]. ¹⁴ And God has not only raised the Lord [to life], but will also raise us up by His power. ¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Am I therefore to take the members of Christ and make them part of a ^[k]prostitute? Certainly not! ¹⁶ Do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “The two shall be one flesh.”^{(E) 17} But the one who is united and joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. ¹⁸ Run away from sexual immorality [in any form, whether thought or behavior, whether visual or written]. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the one who is sexually immoral sins against his own body. ¹⁹ Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is within you, whom you have [received as a gift] from God, and that you are not your own [property]? ²⁰ You were bought with a price [you were actually purchased with the precious blood of Jesus and made His own]. So then, honor and glorify God with your body.