1 Corinthians 5
1It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles, that oneof you hath his father’s wife. 2And ye are puffed up, and did not rather mourn, that he that had done this deed might be taken away from among you. 3For I verily, being absent in body but present in spirit, have already as though I were present judged him that hath so wrought this thing, 4in the name of our Lord Jesus, ye being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 6Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 7Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, even as ye are unleavened. For our passover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ: 8wherefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 9I wrote unto you in my epistle to have no company with fornicators; 10not at all meaning with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous and extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world: 11but as it is, I wrote unto you not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one no, not to eat. 12For what have I to do with judging them that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within? 13But them that are without God judgeth. Put away the wicked man from among yourselves.
What is 1 Corinthians 5 about?
Turning from divisions to a scandal in their midst, Paul confronts a case of gross immorality—a man living with his father's wife, a sin not even named among the Gentiles—while the church remains puffed up instead of mourning. He commands them to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved, and to purge out the old leaven, since a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Because Christ our passover is sacrificed for us, they must keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness. His call to expel the unrepentant and to refuse fellowship with those who bear the name of brother yet live in open sin guards the holiness of the people Christ has redeemed.
Matthew Henry on 1 Corinthians 5