1Corinthians Chapter Five

Paul addresses an issue of serious sexual misconduct that has to do with a man who sleeps with his father’s wife. This would not be the man’s mother otherwise Paul would have been definite about naming it as incest. So the woman would have been a second (or third?) wife, and we don’t know whether the man has been widowed or is divorced. But the matter is weighty enough for Paul to recommend drastic action and the man is seriously dealt with. Note the comparison with this man and the man called Achan in Joshua chapter 7 who became a corrupting influence for the Nation of Israel by secretly and greedily looting treasure from the enemy.

As the situation unfolds we see Paul making the point concerning the needs of the group verses the wants of an individual. The health of the community of faith is paramount and the individual has to be isolated so as not to bring a corrupting influence into the church, even by his very presence, which Paul sees to be presumptuous. Paul also rebukes the church (leaders obviously) for not protecting the faith community from the consequences of this immoral behavior. They appear to be nonchalant and arrogant about it, as if flaunting their new found ‘liberty’. In a radically drastic act of authority Paul exercises his apostolic judgment and commits the man’s physical health into the hands of Satan so that his spiritual health might be saved. It is interesting that Paul mentions that he has already written to them about the issue of immorality, but that letter must have got lost because it does not appear in any scrolls or other references up to this point in time anyway.

Paul brings up the matter of keeping company with people whose lifestyles are immoral in a range of corrupt behaviors. He is clear in the differentiation he makes between protecting the faith community from corruption and the common sense circumstance of living life in the wider community where people have to rub shoulders no matter what they believe, and no matter what their morals are. He sets the bar high, almost idealistically for church family, but he backs it up by comparing the corrupting influence with yeast or leaven which denatures and deforms bread, with the pure and unleavened bread that represents the person of Jesus. The message is that Jesus in the midst of a community keeps it pure while tolerated corruption distorts its being and nature.

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1 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 5- CONTEMPORARY ALIGNED VERSION (SPIRITCODE)


1. Everybody's talking about the sexual immorality that is going on among you, and it's as shocking as anything that could happen anywhere in the world, a son sleeping with his father's second wife.


2. And your attitude is nonchalant and arrogant. You are not even distressed that he is still part of your church family.


3. So even though I can't be there in person, I am with you in spirit and I have already made up my mind about what should be done about this person.


4. So the next time you all get together in the name and in the power of Jesus just remember that I am there in spirit with you


5. And hand this person over to Satan for destructive forces to be let loose against this man. And even though he may suffer physically and emotionally it might just cause him to be rescued spiritually for the day when Jesus returns in judgment.


6. Your insolence in this is disgraceful. Don't you realize that just a little bit of leaven can ferment and alter an entire batch of bread?


7. Get rid of that leaven so that you can be a fresh loaf of pure unleavened bread. You know that the life of Jesus that was sacrificed for us represents the unleavened bread used at the Passover feast.


8. So let us respect the true meaning of the bread of the feast, not demoting it to mere religious tradition, and neither debasing it because of depraved behavior, but honoring it with the pure and wholesome bread of honesty and sincerity.


9. I wrote to you before about not keeping company with sexually immoral people


10. But of course I am not talking about people in the world, only people who say they are church family, and if I meant people in the world then you would have to exit the world altogether. But I mean Christians with behavior that is overtly greedy and dishonest, or full of superstitious idolatry.


11. I want to emphasize the point that you should not be sharing in that lifestyle by going out and socializing with people who claim they are part of the church family but who are sexually immoral, greedy, superstitious, always abusive, always drunk, always dishonest.


12. It is not my place to judge and criticize people of the world who live like this, but we should expect a higher standard from people in the church.


13. What people in the outside world do or don’t do is between them and God, and he is looking after that side of things, not us. But you have a responsibility right now to deal with that immoral man in your church


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