1 Corinthians 5 · ESV Study Bible

Sexual Immorality Defiles the Church

1 CORINTHIANS 5 [†]It is actually reported that there is w sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, x for a man has his father’s wife. 2[†]And y you are arrogant! Ought you z not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

3[†]For though a absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. 4When you are assembled b in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5[†]you are c to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so d that his spirit may be saved e in the day of the Lord. [1]

6[†] f Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that g a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8Let us therefore celebrate the festival, h not with the old leaven, i the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

9[†]I wrote to you in my letter j not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 k not at all meaning l the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, m since then you would need to go out of the world. 11[†]But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone n who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12For what have I to do with judging o outsiders? p Is it not those inside the church [2] whom you are to judge? 13[†]God judges [3] those outside. q “Purge the evil person from among you.”

1 CORINTHIANS—NOTE ON 5:1 has his father’s wife. Not his biological mother but his stepmother; otherwise Paul would have explicitly said so. Leviticus 18:8 specifically forbids sexual relations between a man and his “father’s wife.” God’s people are to be distinguished from surrounding nations by following God’s law rather than the customs of those nations (Lev. 18:1–5). Ironically, the Corinthian Christians were more tolerant of flagrant sin than were the pagans among whom they lived.

1 CORINTHIANS—NOTE ON 5:5 Deliver this man to Satan probably refers to removing him from the church, since those outside of the church are in Satan’s realm (Luke 4:5–6; Eph. 2:2; 1 John 5:19). destruction of the flesh. Although it is certainly not always the case (cf. John 9:1–3), personal sin sometimes has grave physical consequences (Acts 5:1–11; 1 Cor. 11:29–30). spirit may be saved. The purpose of the discipline was not to punish the man for punishment’s sake but to effect his restoration to the church and eventual salvation (see 1 Tim. 1:20).

1 CORINTHIANS—NOTE ON 5:1–6:20 A Report of Sexual Immorality and Legal Wrangling. Paul has heard not only of disunity in the Corinthian church but also of a bizarre case of sexual misconduct (5:1–13), of believers taking other believers before pagan courts (6:1–11), and of sexual immorality with prostitutes (6:12–20). In answer to these problems, Paul instructs the Corinthians on the meaning of Christian holiness and the significance of the final day.

1 CORINTHIANS—NOTE ON 5:1–13 Incest, Arrogance, and the Need for Discipline. Paul first tells the Corinthians that God has set certain boundaries to mark out his people as his own. The Corinthians need to maintain these boundaries by disciplining a man in their church involved in incest.

1 CORINTHIANS—NOTE ON 5:13 “Purge … from among you.” As the newly constituted people of God (10:32), the Corinthians are to follow God’s instructions to Israel for preserving its holiness when flagrant, unrepented-of sin is in its midst (Deut. 13:5; 17:7, 12; 19:19; 21:21; 22:21–22, 24; 24:7). In this case, they are to do so by excommunicating the man committing incest.

1 CORINTHIANS—NOTE ON 5:11 not to associate. See 2 Thess. 3:6, 14. One purpose here, as in 2 Thessalonians, is redemptive with respect to the person committing the sin (1 Cor. 5:5; 2 Thess. 3:14–15). But another purpose is to avoid giving the appearance of approving sinful conduct, lest reproach be brought on the church and the gospel.

1 CORINTHIANS—NOTE ON 5:2 arrogant. See v. 6. The arrogance may arise from the Corinthians’ mistaken “knowledge” that they are somehow free of normal moral constraints (6:12; 8:1; 10:23). If so, they may have thought of this freedom as an implication of grace (Rom. 3:8; 6:1, 15; Jude 4). It is also possible that Paul simply thinks of their characteristic arrogance (1 Cor. 3:21; 4:6, 8, 18–19) as doubly inappropriate in light of the shocking sin in their midst.