What reported offence, judgment and company distinction does Paul state?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The report of a man having his father’s wife prompts Paul’s judgment and direction for removal. Leaven imagery leads into a distinction between named brethren and outsiders.

Chapter breakdown

Paul reports fornication among the community of a kind not even found among the heathens: a man has his father’s wife. The readers are puffed up rather than mourning so that the offender might be removed. Although absent in body, Paul is present in spirit and has already judged as though present. When they are gathered in Jesus’s name, with Paul’s spirit and the Lord’s power, he directs that the man be delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the Lord’s day. The chapter reports the judgment, without narrating its execution or the man’s eventual response.

Their glorying is not good. A little leaven corrupts the whole lump. They should purge the old leaven to become a new paste, as they are unleavened; Christ their pasch is sacrificed. They should keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, rather than the old leaven or the leaven of malice and wickedness.

Paul clarifies his earlier instruction not to keep company with fornicators. He did not mean the fornicators, covetous people, extortioners or idol servers of the world, since that would require leaving the world. He now means someone named a brother who is a fornicator, covetous, an idol server, a railer, a drunkard or an extortioner: they should not keep company or even eat with such a person. Paul asks why he should judge those outside. The readers judge those inside, while God judges those outside. They are to put away the evil one from among themselves.

The story inside

The purpose that the spirit may be saved is not a report of conversion. The chapter states a judgment and commands without narrating their execution.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The source says spirit may be saved.
2
Named brother list includes railer and extortioner.
3
Removal is directed, not narrated accomplished.

Test your recall

How does Paul distinguish named brethren from outsiders?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 129483–129497
5:1. It is absolutely heard that there is fornication among you and such fornication as the like is not among the heathens: that one should have his father’s wife. 5:2. And you are puffed up and have not rather mourned: that he might be taken away from among you that hath done this thing. 5:3. I indeed, absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged, as though I were present, him that hath so done, 5:4. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus: 5:5. To deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Lines 129499–129507
5:6. Your glorying is not good. Know you not that a little leaven corrupteth the whole lump? 5:7. Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste, as you are unleavened. For Christ our pasch is sacrificed. 5:8. Therefore, let us feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness: but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Lines 129509–129518
5:9. I wrote to you in an epistle not to keep company with fornicators. 5:10. I mean not with the fornicators of this world or with the covetous or the extortioners or the servers of idols: otherwise you must needs go out of this world. 5:11. But now I have written to you, not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother be a fornicator or covetous or a server of idols or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner: with such a one, not so much as to eat.
Lines 129520–129524
5:12. For what have I to do to judge them that are without? Do not you judge them that are within? 5:13. For them that are without, God will judge. Put away the evil one from among yourselves.