Chapter Five

On the Corinthian incestuous man (1–5). On church discipline in general (6–13)

1 Cor 5:1-5. Beginning his speech on church discipline, the Apostle first points to a particular case where this discipline was required to be exercised with full severity. One of the Corinthian Christians had taken his stepmother as a wife, and therefore the Apostle announces to the Corinthian Christians — who had remained indifferent to this outrageous act — that he has decided to hand this offender over to Satan.

1 Corinthians 5:1. It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among the pagans — that a man is living with his father’s wife. “It is actually reported” — more precisely: it is generally heard... — “Not found even among the pagans.” The law of Moses, under threat of the death penalty, forbade marrying one’s stepmother (Lev 18:8). Roman law likewise did not permit this. 1 Thus the Corinthian incestuous man had taken his stepmother as a companion without any legal sanction. Since the Apostle condemns only the incestuous man, leaving his stepmother without punishment, it is more probable to regard her as a pagan.

1 Corinthians 5:2. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let the one who has done this be removed from among you. “And you are arrogant.” If the Corinthian Christians had formed a close-knit community in which the concept of their high and holy calling was kept inviolate, then upon learning of such a transgression by one of their brethren they would doubtless have gone into mourning immediately, as a family does when it loses its head. But they were so carried away with their notion of their own perfections that they paid no attention to this case! — “Let him be removed” — this result evidently did not depend on the decision of the Corinthians themselves, and therefore the Apostle has in mind not a simple church excommunication. The one who must remove the incestuous man is, in Paul’s thought, God Himself, Who, in response to the sorrowful petitions for the removal of the offender from their midst, would answer just as He did when He carried out His judgment, after Peter’s speech, upon Ananias and Sapphira. The verb “to remove” (αίρειν) in the Old Testament is sometimes used to denote the death penalty for transgressors of the law (Deut 21:19-21).

1 Corinthians 5:3. For though 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. The Apostle contrasts his own strict attitude to the indifference of the Corinthian Christians toward the terrible sin of their fellow member. Although he was far away, he was present with them in spirit, and therefore what had occurred in Corinth so outraged him that he decided, as one having the authority to decide the fate of the incestuous man.

1 Corinthians 5:4. in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are assembled and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, “In your assembly.” The court over the offender is to be constituted from the Corinthian Christians. The Apostle himself will be spiritually present at this assembly. The verdict will be pronounced “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,” with the guarantee that this verdict will be carried out “by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In this case the Apostle has in view the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ given to the Apostles: “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Truly I tell you again: if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Matt 18:18-20). “Binding” the offender — that is, executing judgment upon him — must now be done by those believing Corinthians who will gather “in the name of Christ,” having completely “the same” opinion about the crime of their fellow member. Let this assembly be small — that is not important! What matters is that the Head of the Church Himself — Christ — will be present among them, and they will decide the matter not by a majority of votes but unanimously. Similarly, the decision will be carried out by Christ by virtue of the unanimous prayer of those assembled. “And my spirit is present.” The Apostle, by virtue of his awareness of his union with Christ (Gal 2:20), boldly says that where Christ will be invisibly present, there will he, Paul, also be — all the more so at the assembly of the Corinthian Church, which he founded. Of a similar transportation of his soul the Apostle hints in the 2nd epistle to the Corinthians (2 Cor 12:3): “whether in the body or out of the body I do not know” (I was caught up to the third heaven). “By the power of the Lord” — these words should be taken with the following verb: “to hand over.” Human action here is united with “the power” (σύν δυνάμει) “of the Lord” and therefore proves effective.

1 Corinthians 5:5. to hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. “To hand over.” It is most natural to make this word dependent on the verb “I have already pronounced judgment” (v. 3). As for the Apostle, by virtue of his apostolic authority, he has already decided to “hand over” the offender “to Satan.” The assembly of sympathetic Corinthians must take care that this decision be carried out, and the Apostle has no doubt that such sympathizers will be found. — “To hand over to Satan.” This expression occurs only again in 1 Tim 1:20. Some commentators see in this expression the designation of simple excommunication from the Church, but this interpretation pays no attention to the expressions “by the power of the Lord... and for the destruction of the flesh.” Moreover, the false teachers mentioned in 1 Tim. were handed over to Satan in order that they might learn not to blaspheme. But would excommunication from the Church have caused them to cease their blasphemies?! Others, focusing on the expression “for the destruction of the flesh,” see in the present case a handing over of the offender to Satan so that the latter, by his characteristic malice and cruelty, might torment the sinner — with some supposing that this handing over to Satan was closely connected with excommunication, while others see no need to make such a supposition. This last opinion must be recognized as the most probable. In Holy Scripture, Satan is very often attributed the power to inflict physical evil on people (for example, the story of Job; Luke 13:16; 2 Cor 12:7). He burns with such malice toward people that whenever the opportunity arises he always attacks them, torments them, making no distinction as to whether they are sinners or righteous before him. He does not even understand whether this is harmful or beneficial for his power over the world... Finally, the bodily sufferings the sinner was to endure from the devil (illness) were intended to bring him to his senses and to repentance. “For the destruction of the flesh” (εις όλεθρον τῆς σαρκός). Some see here the annihilation of the flesh in the moral sense of the word — that is, the suppression of sinful desires by virtue of the pain and repentance that would be evoked in the sinner through his exclusion from the Church. But one cannot agree with this opinion, because such exclusion could also lead a person to a hardening in sin, and moreover, for such an idea the Apostle would have used other, more fitting expressions (for example, “to put away” — Rom 6:6; “to put to death” — Col 3:5; “to crucify” — Gal 5:24). Others see in this “destruction of the flesh” a real weakening of the body, which weakening is to end in death. In this sense — in the sense of “living body” — the expression “flesh” is frequently used by the Apostle Paul (Phil 1:22; Gal 2:20), and therefore this interpretation may be recognized as correct, all the more so since we already have an example of such a condemnation in the judgment of the Apostle Peter upon Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11). Only there the death of the offenders followed immediately upon the pronouncement of the verdict, whereas here it was to come after a prolonged illness. — “So that his spirit may be saved.” The Apostle does not say that the spirit — this higher aspect of human existence — will certainly be saved, that is, enter into communion with the Deity and be blessed. But in any case, for the salvation of the spirit, the means chosen by the Apostle — namely, the destruction of the body in which sin has made its nest — is the only fitting one! “In the day of the Lord” — that is, during the last judgment over the world, which the Lord Jesus Christ will carry out at His second coming to earth. — Where will the incestuous man bring the repentance that will serve for his salvation? Here, on earth, before death, because beyond the grave it is already too late to repent (see the parable of the rich man and Lazarus). 2 1 Cor 5:6-13. The case of the incestuous man now gives the Apostle Paul occasion to make several observations to the Corinthians about maintaining strict church discipline. Having indicated the reason why they treated the sin of their fellow member so indifferently (vv. 6–8), the Apostle says that one must be particularly strict toward sinners from within one’s own Christian community — not to enter into fellowship with them, and to remove a bad person from the Christian community.

1 Corinthians 5:6. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough? Earlier the Apostle had spoken of the groundlessness of the Corinthians’ self-satisfaction (1 Cor 4:19). Now he expresses the same thought in application to the case of the incestuous man. Intoxicated by their outward successes in Christian life (an abundance of spiritual gifts), they did not pay sufficient attention to this very important case. See what their boasting has led to! (instead of “your boasting is not good” it is better to translate: “your boasting does not lead to good”!). “Do you not know...” They, who pride themselves so much on their knowledge, ought to understand what such indulgence — shown even once — leads to. A small amount of leaven makes all the dough sour — that is, even the most insignificant sin can exert a harmful influence on the life of an entire Christian Church.

1 Corinthians 5:7. Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new batch, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us. 1 Corinthians 5:8. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Every Christian must strive to suppress in himself the old sinful habits and to exert influence in the same direction on others. — “Cleanse out the old leaven.” Just as the Jews on the eve of Passover removed all leavened bread from their homes — which was a symbol of the Egyptian vices with which they were infected while living in Egyptian slavery — so the new Israel, the Christians, must remove from their hearts all the bad tendencies that were in them before their conversion to Christ. — “That you may be a new batch.” The result of this will be that the entire Christian community will be renewed — it will resemble that unleavened dough from which bread was baked for Passover and the week of unleavened bread. — “As you are indeed unleavened” — that is, they are in principle, as members of the body of Christ, completely pure. This ideal purity they must transform into reality. — “For Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us.” Since the death of Christ, which became the beginning of people’s dying to sin, a great spiritual Passover has begun for the Church and for each individual believer, when all sins are to be removed from the community of Christians, just as leaven was removed from Jewish homes from the day of Passover. Every Christian is a person without the sinful leaven. “Let us therefore celebrate the festival.” For Christians, Passover continues not for one week but for an entire lifetime. “For the true Christian, all days are Passover, all days are Pentecost and Christmas” (John Chrysostom). “Malice” (κακία) is a general depravity of a person who is unable to struggle against evil, while “wickedness” (πονηρία) denotes a deliberate conniving with evil, based on the evil will of the person. — “But with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” — that is, with the unleavened bread that must for Christians be “sincerity” of soul, in which it is impossible to harbor sympathy for evil, and “truth,” when a person honestly and openly struggles against evil. — It is very likely that the Apostle uses all these images here in view of the fact that he was writing his epistle during Passover.

1 Corinthians 5:9. I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people — 1 Corinthians 5:10. not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. In the preceding verses the Apostle pointed to the weakening of church discipline in the Corinthian Church. Now he offers some clarifications to what he has said, so that the Corinthians do not fall into misunderstanding. When he wrote in the epistle (vv. 2, 6, and 7 of the chapter under discussion) 3 that they should not associate with sexually immoral people (cf. 2 John 1:10), he had in view only sinners from within the Christian community, not all sinners in general who live in the world “of this world,” for otherwise good Christians would have to leave the cities and withdraw to the wilderness! — “Idolaters” could be found even among the Corinthian Christians. These were those who, even after their conversion, could continue observing pagan customs — for example, attending the meals arranged in pagan temples (see 1 Cor 8).

1 Corinthians 5:11. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone 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. The Apostle enumerates those vices that must meet with strict condemnation from the Church when the person having any one of these vices continues to call himself a Christian.

1 Corinthians 5:12. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 1 Corinthians 5:13. God judges those outside. Therefore, drive out the wicked person from among you. Here the Apostle justifies his different attitude toward believers and unbelievers. However, in saying that he does not wish to judge “outsiders,” the Apostle has in mind himself as a Christian in general, not as an Apostle. Every Christian can himself sever fellowship with his fellow believer as soon as he sees that the latter does not want to reform. Christ the Savior said: “let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector” (Matt 18:17). — “Outsiders.” This is what pagans were called by the Jews, but the Apostle uses this expression evidently in application to both pagans and Jews. The Apostle seems here to contradict the commandment of Christ: “Do not judge...” (Matt 7:1). But Christ forbade malicious condemnation, when a person condemns a neighbor on the basis of conjecture alone, trying to guess his hidden intentions. Such condemnation is also forbidden by the Apostle Paul (1 Cor 4:5). But here the Apostle counsels — and even makes it an obligation for the Christian — to judge an action that openly violates the proper order of Christian life, and moreover a judgment combined with a loving concern for finding means that might set a person on the true path (“so that his spirit may be saved” — v. 5). The former judgment is accompanied by a certain feeling of malicious pleasure, while the latter is accompanied by humility and grief (v. 2). — “Therefore, drive out...” Repeating here the idea expressed in the law of Moses (see Deut 17:7), the Apostle commands that all depraved persons be removed from the midst of the Christian community. The means for this are indicated above — namely, mourning before God, addressing God with a petition for the removal of such sinners (v. 2), and a personal break with them (v. 11). Other means of church discipline toward sinners the Apostle does not know, or at least does not indicate. Of course, the exhortations that should precede a church trial (Matt 18:15-20) he did not consider it necessary to mention here. * * * See Dobschütz. Urchristl. Ehe. S. 269 and following. Ph. Bachmann, also understanding the expression εις όλεθρον της σαρκος as denoting physical death, points to the words of Christ (Matt 18:6), in which the thought is conveyed that it is sometimes better for a sinner to die, so that the development of his sinfulness may be halted and the hope of salvation thus preserved... Ph. Bachmann sees here a reference to the existence of some letter to the Corinthians unknown to us. But there is no need to make such a supposition. The Apostle simply paused in composing the epistle at the eighth verse and then, continuing it, said: “I wrote.”