Summary of 1 Corinthians, Chapter 5

Paul complains of sexual looseness in Corinth, to such a point that a man in their community is living with the wife of his father -- a stepmother it seems. Even the pagans do not permit that, he says -- and yet the Corinthians are still proud! Rather, they should be sad, and get that evil one out from their midst. Paul himself, though physically absent, is present in spirit, and has already passed judgment: they should gather together in the name of Jesus, and hand the man over to Satan to be mistreated, so that he will come to his senses.

Their boasting -- he is thinking of the factions again it seems -- is bad. Just as a small bit of yeast can work through a large mass of dough, so also this one evil person may do much harm. So: clean out the old yeast, and be a new mass of dough. You should be unleavened, for Christ, our Passover has been immolated. Then they can celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast or with corruption, but with the unleavened bread of purity and truth.

Paul had written them in a previous letter that they should not have close association with immoral persons. He means those who claim to be Christians but are immoral. He does not mean the immoral persons among the pagans, who include greedy persons, robbers and idolaters. They would have to get off this world to avoid all pagans who are immoral! But he means they should not associate closely with so-called Christians who are guilty of immorality or greed or idolatry, reviling, drunkenness, robbery. They should not even eat with such a Christian. As to those outside -- it is for God to judge them. But they should drive out the incestuous man.

Comments on Chapter 5

Paul uses the Greek porneia here, which is broad enough to cover any kind of sexual looseness. The man in question seems to be living with his stepmother -- though some commentators think it is his natural mother after the death of his father. The law of Moses, Leviticus 18:8 prohibited this. So did Roman law.¹⁴

Paul calls for strong action. Some today speak of simply forgiving even if a person does not repent. Not so Paul. He wants to excommunicate the man, and even to hand him over to Satan to be worked over till he comes to his senses. In Paul's day, the hand of God was showing itself clearly in pleasant things, such as the miraculous gifts regularly given at Baptism. The other side of the coin was that God's hand showed itself openly to punish evil; thus we see in 1 Corinthians 11:30 that some became physically sick or died from unworthy reception of the Holy Eucharist. For another case of such a penalty, see 2 Timothy 1:20.

The talk about the leaven is double edged -- leaven or yeast is really a beneficial form of corruption. Here it stands for evil corruption, and also recalls that at the Passover the old leaven had to be cleaned out (cf. Exodus 12:15-17 and 13:6-7). Christ is the new Passover, and so we must get rid of all leaven, i.e., evil or corruption, to celebrate His Passover.

Some think the mention of clearing out the old leaven could indicate Paul was writing near Easter. This is possible, but far from proved.

Paul says he wrote to them in a previous letter that they must avoid close association with immoral persons (the word is pornoi -- sexually loose persons). So we gather that what we call First Corinthians is really at least Second Corinthians. We will see later that he also wrote at least one letter in between our First and Second Corinthians -- so there must have been at least 4 letters to Corinth, perhaps even more. Could the lost letters have been inspired? Yes, inspiration would not necessarily prevent loss. Is there any hope of finding the lost ones? Hope gets small, but it is not gone. In our own century there have been major discoveries of ancient works on papyri in Egypt -- the most recent in 1946-47, a whole library of Gnostic works at Nag ha'ammadi. The Delta gets moderate rainfall, but the rest of Egypt is so dry that papyri even without care can survive for many centuries, even millennia.

Paul wants them to avoid close association with immoral Christians. We could translate either "so-called Christians," or: "those who have the name of Christian." There is a difference in slant and color. The Greek will stand either translation. We might compare what he says about avoiding Christians who do not live up to their faith in 2 Thessalonians 3:6 & 14. The purpose is to bring such a one to his senses. So this advice must be used with good judgment, to decide in each case what is most likely to bring the result Paul hopes for.

At the end he quotes a line that occurs more than once in Deuteronomy (e.g., 13:5): "Take away the evil from your midst."