CHAPTER 5
1Co
5:1–13. The Incestuous Person at Corinth:
The Corinthians Reproved for Connivance,
and Warned to Purge Out the Bad Leaven. Qualification
of His Former Command as to Association with Sinners of the World.
1.
commonly—rather, “actually” [Alford]. Absolutely [Bengel]. “It is reported,” implies, that
the Corinthians, though they “wrote” (1Co 7:1) to Paul on other points, gave
him no information on those things which bore against themselves. These latter
matters reached the apostle indirectly (1Co 1:11).
so
much as named—The oldest manuscripts and
authorities omit “named”: “Fornication of such a gross kind as (exists) not
even among the heathen, so that one (of you) hath (in concubinage) his father’s
wife,” that is, his stepmother, while his father is still alive (2Co 7:12;
compare Le 18:8). She was perhaps a heathen, for which reason he does not
direct his rebuke against her (compare 1Co 5:12, 13). Alford thinks “have” means have in marriage: but the
connection is called “fornication,” and neither Christian nor Gentile law
would have sanctioned such a marriage, however Corinth’s notorious
profligacy might wink at the concubinage.
2.
puffed up—with your own wisdom and knowledge,
and the eloquence of your favorite teachers: at a time when ye ought to be
“mourning” at the scandal caused to religion by the incest. Paul mourned
because they did not mourn (2Co 2:4). We ought to mourn over the
transgressions of others, and repent of our own (2Co 12:21) [Bengel].
that—ye have not felt such mourning as would lead to the result that,
&c.
taken
away from among you—by excommunication. The incestuous
person was hereby brought to bitter repentance, in the interval between the
sending of the first and second Epistles (2Co 2:5–10). Excommunication in the
Christian Church corresponded to that in the Jewish synagogue, in there being a
lighter and heavier form: the latter an utter separation from church fellowship
and the Lord’s house, the former exclusion from the Lord’s Supper only but not
from the Church.
3.
as absent—The best manuscripts read, “being
absent.”
present
in spirit—(2Ki 5:26; Col 2:5).
so
done—rather, “perpetrated,” as the Greek
word here is stronger than that for “done” in 1Co 5:2. “So,” that is, so
scandalously while called a brother.
4.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—By
His authority and as representing His person and will (2Co 2:10). Join
this with “to deliver such a one unto Satan” (1Co 5:5). The clause, “When ye
have been gathered together and my spirit (wherein I am ‘present,’ though
‘absent in body,’ 1Co 5:3), with the power of our Lord Jesus,” stands in a
parenthesis between. Paul speaking of himself uses the word “spirit”; of
Christ, “power.” Christ’s power was promised to be present with HIS Church
“gathered together in His name” (Mt 18:18–20): and here Paul by inspiration
gives a special promise of his apostolic spirit, which in such cases was guided
by the Holy Spirit, ratifying their decree passed according to his judgment
(“I have judged,” 1Co 5:3), as though he were present in person (Jn 20:21–23;
2Co 13:3–10). This power of infallible judgment was limited to the apostles;
for they alone had the power of working miracles as their credentials to attest
their infallibility. Their successors, to establish their claim to the latter,
must produce the former (2Co 12:2). Even the apostles in ordinary cases, and
where not specially and consciously inspired, were fallible (Ac 8:13, 23; Ga
2:11–14).
5. Besides excommunication (of which the Corinthians
themselves had the power), Paul delegates here to the Corinthian Church his
own special power as an apostle, of inflicting corporeal disease or death
in punishment for sin (“to deliver to Satan such an one,” that is, so heinous a
sinner). For instances of this power, see Ac 5:1–11; 13:11; 1Ti 1:20. As Satan
receives power at times to try the godly, as Job (Job 2:4–7) and Paul (2Co
12:7; compare also as to Peter, Lu 22:31), much more the ungodly. Satan, the
“accuser of the brethren” (Rev 12:10) and the “adversary” (1Pe 5:8), demands
the sinner for punishment on account of sin (Zec 3:1). When God lets Satan have
his way, He is said to “deliver the sinner unto Satan” (compare Ps 109:6). Here
it is not finally; but for the affliction of the body with disease, and even death
(1Co 11:30, 32), so as to destroy fleshly lust. He does not say, “for
the destruction of the body,” for it shall share in redemption
(Ro 8:23); but of the corrupt “flesh” which “cannot inherit the kingdom of
God,” and the lusts of which had prompted this offender to incest (Ro 7:5). The
“destruction of the flesh” answers to “mortify the deeds of the body”
(Ro 8:13), only that the latter is done by one’s self, the former is effected
by chastisement from God (compare 1Pe 4:6):
the
spirit … saved—the spiritual part of man, in the
believer the organ of the Holy Spirit. Temporary affliction often leads to
permanent salvation (Ps 83:16).
6. Your glorying in your own attainments and those of your
favorite teachers (1Co 3:21; 4:19; 5:2), while all the while ye connive at such
a scandal, is quite unseemly.
a
little leaven leaveth … whole lump—(Ga
5:9), namely, with present complicity in the guilt, and the danger of
future contagion (1Co 15:33; 2Ti 2:17).
7.
old leaven—The remnant of the “old” (Eph
4:22–24) heathenish and natural corruption. The image is taken from the extreme
care of the Jews in searching every corner of their houses, and “purging out”
every particle of leaven from the time of killing the lamb before the Passover
(De 16:3, 4). So Christians are continually to search and purify their hearts
(Ps 139:23, 24).
as
ye are unleavened—normally, and as far as your
Christian calling is concerned: free from the leaven of sin and death (1Co
6:11). Paul often grounds exhortations on the assumption of Christian
professors’ normal state as realized (Ro 6:3, 4) [Alford]. Regarding the Corinthian Church
as the Passover “unleavened lump” or mass, he entreats them to correspond in
fact with this their normal state. “For Christ our Passover (Ex 12:5–11, 21–23;
Jn 1:29) has been (English Version, “is”) sacrificed for us”;
that is, as the Jews began the days of unleavened bread with the slaying
of the Passover lamb, so, Christ our Passover having been already slain,
let there be no leaven of evil in you who are the “unleavened lump.” Doubtless
he alludes to the Passover which had been two or three weeks before kept by the
Jewish Christians (1Co 16:8): the Gentile Christians probably also refraining
from leavened bread at the love-feasts. Thus the Jewish Passover naturally gave
place to our Christian Easter. The time however, of keeping feast
(metaphorical; that is, leading the Christian life of joy in Christ’s
finished work, compare Pr 15:15) among us Christians, corresponding to the
Jewish Passover, is not limited, as the latter, to one season, but is ALL our
time; for the transcendent benefits of the once-for-all completed sacrifice of our
Passover Lamb extends to all the time of our lives and of this Christian
dispensation; in no part of our time is the leaven of evil to be admitted.
For
even—an additional reason, besides that
in 1Co 5:6, and a more cogent one for purging out every leaven of evil; namely,
that Christ has been already sacrificed, whereas the old leaven is yet
unremoved, which ought to have been long ago purged out.
8.
not … old leaven—of our unconverted state as Jews or
heathen.
malice—the opposite of “sincerity,” which allows no leaven of evil
to be mixed up with good (Mt 16:6).
wickedness—the opposite of “truth,” which allows not evil to be
mistaken for good. The Greek for “malice” means the evil habit of
mind; “wickedness,” the outcoming of the same in word and deed. The Greek
for “sincerity” expresses literally, a thing which, when examined by the
sun’s light, is found pure and unadulterated.
9.
I wrote … in an epistle—rather,
“in the Epistle”: a former one not now extant. That Paul does not refer to the present
letter is proved by the fact that no direction “not to company with
fornicators” occurs in the previous part of it; also the words, “in an (or, the)
epistle,” could not have been added if he meant, “I have just written” (2Co
10:10). “His letters” (plural; not applying to merely one)
confirm this. 2Co 7:8 also refers to our first Epistle, just as here a former
letter is referred to by the same phrase. Paul probably wrote a former brief
reply to inquiries of the Corinthians: our first Epistle, as it enters more
fully into the same subject, has superseded the former, which the Holy Spirit
did not design for the guidance of the Church in general, and which therefore
has not been preserved. See my Introduction.
10. Limitation of the prohibition alluded to in 1Co 5:9. As in
dissolute Corinth to “company with no fornicators,” &c. would be almost to
company with none in the (unbelieving) world; ye need not utterly
(“altogether”) forego intercourse with fornicators, &c., of the unbelieving
world (compare 1Co 10:27; Jn 17:15; 1Jn 5:18, 19). As “fornicators” sin against
themselves, so “extortioners” against their neighbors, and “idolaters” against
God. The attempt to get “out of the world,” in violation of God’s will that
believers should remain in it but keep themselves from its evil, led to
monasticism and its consequent evils.
11.
But now—“Now” does not express time,
but “the case being so,” namely, that to avoid fornicators, &c., of
the world, you would have to leave the world altogether, which would be
absurd. So “now” is used in Heb 11:16. Thus we avoid making the apostle now
retract a command which he had before given.
I
have written—that is, my meaning in the letter I
wrote was “not to keep company,” &c.
a
brother—contrasted with a “fornicator … of
the world” (1Co 5:10). There is less danger in associating with open
worldlings than with carnal professors. Here, as in Eph 5:3, 5, “covetousness”
is joined with “fornication”: the common fount of both being “the fierce and
ever fiercer longing of the creature, which has turned from God, to fill itself
with the inferior objects of sense” [Trench,
Greek Synonyms of the New Testament]. Hence “idolatry” is associated
with them: and the covetous man is termed an “idolater” (Nu 25:1, 2). The
Corinthians did not fall into open idolatry, but ate things offered to idols,
so making a compromise with the heathen; just as they connived at fornication.
Thus this verse prepares for the precepts in 1Co 8:4, &c. Compare the
similar case of fornication, combined with a similar idolatrous compromise,
after the pattern of Israel with the Midianites (Rev 2:14).
no
not to eat—not to sit at the same table with
such; whether at the love-feasts (agapae) or in private intercourse,
much more at the Lord’s table: at the last, too often now the guests “are not
as children in one family, but like a heterogeneous crowd of strangers in an
inn” [Bengel] (compare Ga 2:12;
2Jn 1:10:11).
12.
what have I to do—You might have easily understood
that my concern is not with unbelievers outside the Church, but that I
referred to those within it.
also—Implying, Those within give me enough to do without
those outside.
do
not ye, &c.—Ye judge your fellow
citizens, not strangers: much more should I [Bengel].
Rather, Is it not your duty to judge them that are within? God
shall judge them that are without: do you look at home [Grotius]. God is the Judge of the salvation of the heathen,
not we (Ro 2:12–16). Paul here gives an anticipatory censure of their going to
law with saints before heathen tribunals, instead of judging such causes among
themselves within.
13.
put away from among yourselves that wicked—Sentence
of excommunication in language taken from De 24:7.
Excerpt from:
A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
by Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown
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