1 Corinthians 5 KJV
Immorality in the Church
1 Corinthians Chapter 5: Immorality in the Church
Paul's identification of Christ as "our passover" in verse 7 draws on the Passover lamb's blood applied to doorposts in Exodus, positioning church purity as participation in Christ's atoning sacrifice rather than mere moral improvement.
1t is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his fatherโs wife.
2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:cf.
8 Therefore 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.
9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
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Did You Know?
Paul's identification of Christ as "our passover" in verse 7 draws on the Passover lamb's blood applied to doorposts in Exodus, positioning church purity as participation in Christ's atoning sacrifice rather than mere moral improvement.
The command to deliver the offender "unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh" echoes Job's trials and 1 Timothy 1:20, suggesting a temporary physical affliction permitted by apostolic authority to prompt repentance and ultimate salvation.
By invoking the "leaven" metaphor from Exodus 12 and applying it to moral corruption, Paul reinterprets the Jewish Feast of Unleavened Bread as an ongoing ethical reality for Gentile believers, where even tolerated sin spreads like fermentation.
The distinction between refusing fellowship with immoral "brethren" inside the church versus associating with outsiders mirrors the boundary-keeping in Deuteronomy 23 yet permits pragmatic engagement with the pagan marketplace, shaping early Christian social ethics.
Paul's claim to judge the case "as though I were present" asserts apostolic authority exercised remotely through letter and Spirit, prefiguring later conciliar decisions and the concept of virtual ecclesiastical presence.