COMMENTARY BY JOHN W. GREGSON

JUDGMENT AGAINST IMMORALITY

I Corinthians 5:1 - 13

Furthermore the church was puffed up (pephusiomenoi) or arrogant about it rather than mourning for shame; they seemed unconcerned and not grief stricken. Paul had used the same words "puffed up" in 4:6, 18, 19; and later in 8:1. The sinner should be removed (arthe) or taken away from the fellowship. Paul seemed to be as concerned with the permissiveness of the membership of the church as he was the sin itself. "Paul did not mean that the Corinthians were puffed up about the man who was committing incest. He meant that they had been puffed up in their vaunted wisdom, and this had caused them to ignore the canker in their midst" (Fisher, p. 75). Although absent he has already passed judgment on the church, and if he were present he would initiate action. "Paul is in the church in spirit, and in that sense he is giving personal leadership. In spirit he takes the gavel in hand, so to speak, and chairs the meeting of the local church" (Kistemaker, p. 157). In 6:2 Paul states that "the saints shall judge the world."

3 - 5 Paul writes when they meet in church capacity in the spirit and in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, "deliver or surrender the offender to the Devil for the destruction (olethron) of the flesh so that the soul may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." "In Paul's mind, to be excommunicated from the congregation of Christians was to be delivered to Satan" (Fisher, p. 77). Paul made a similar statement in I Timothy 1:20 concerning Hymenius and Alexander (See also: Job 2:6, 7). "Local church autonomy is not threatened by Paul's apostolic order that dictates in advance what the decision of the Corinthians church must be...He was an Apostle to whom had been given the gifts of prophecy and knowledge...in order that the first century churches could have the guidance of the Holy Spirit at a time when they did not have the New Testament available" (Yeager, p. 412). No one could say the man was not saved, although he did not act like he was; expulsion from the church was to be remedial punishment, and the action was meant to be discipline. Discipline must take place, just as a surgeon must use a scalpel to remove a malignant tumor from a patient's body. This may seem to be a strong statement but Yeager writes, "The kindest thing to do for such a Christian is to pray him into a grave" (p. 414). Evidently there is a sin unto death, and this man must have been near that sin (I John 5:16). If II Corinthians 2:6 - 11 refers to this case, the church took immediate action and the matter was resolved.

6 - 8 The word translated boasting really means "the reason for the boast;" Paul was not necessarily condemning boasting but the reason of boasting. The Christian can glory or boast in the Lord but not in oneself. The Corinthians were glorying (kauchema) or boasting, and it was not good; they have no reason for boasting or being proud. "The church of God is holy; sin is its enemy. Their boasting was not good or pleasing to God. To harbor sin in the church is to reap the certain sociological result that sin will first be tolerated, then condoned, then defended and finally accepted and supported" (Yeager, p. 415). This is a ploy of the Devil; he is a master at such action. Now to the example of leaven; the characteristic of leaven is to permeate. The initial reference to leaven is found in Exodus 12:15ff in connection with the Passover. Paul speaks allegorically in verses 6 - 8, and he contemplates the church here as the unleavened bread. Leaven works silently and gradually but effectively; the whole loaf is saturated with the power of leaven. Almost every time the word leaven is used, except in the parables of our Lord, it is considered evil.

Webster says that "leaven is something that modifies or lightens a mass or aggregate." The Greek word is zeme from zeo, meaning to boil; Thayer says, "(leaven) by its influence thoroughly pervades a thing" (p. 273). Jesus said in Matthew 16:6, 11, 12 "...Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees...meaning the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Jesus rebukes His disciples and urged them not to let the doctrine of these sects infiltrate true Christianity. Paul says, "purge it out (ekkatharate the old leaven) that ye may have a new lump, as ye are unleavened."

Prior to the Passover the Jews were to remove from their houses all leaven, "Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread...for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel" (Exodus 12:15). Paul admonishes the Corinthians to exterminate or clean out the leaven (the sinner who engaged in fornication) so that the whole body (the church) would be restored to newness. "Make a fresh start as a new community with the contamination removed" (Robertson, p. 114). In an article entitled "Little Sins - Their Injuriousness," Booth gives this example of contamination, "Some brittle gold, having been accidentally melted with a quantity of well-refined and tough gold, was found to have rendered the whole mass brittle with a highly crystalline fracture, and therefore useless for coinage. The impurity causing brittleness in the whole 75,000 ounces was a small fraction of an ounce, probably one three hundred-thousandth, or less, of the original weight. It will be seen from this that the saying holds good in metallurgy as well as in morals, 'A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump,' rendering it totally unfit for current uses, until it has been passed through a purifying process" (B. I. Volume XLVII, p. 386).

Just as the Jews kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread so the Corinthians were to remove the leaven of adultery, malice and wickedness and "keep the feast...with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." Sincerity refers to purity of motive, and truth to purity of action. Only when the church removes the sinner who is guilty of fornication can she sit down at the Lord's Table and observe the Lord's Supper or any other meal in a way that would be pleasing to God. Jesus, our Passover Lamb, was sacrificed on Calvary, and the Corinthians had not gotten rid of the leaven. She needs to repent and show a spirit of humility and discipline the person and thereby please God. "As the Jewish Passover was the occasion of the Jews abstaining from leaven, so the slaying of Christ, our paschal lamb, is the reason why Christians should put away all sin" (Robertson, p. 46). "The passover was the annual commemoration of the deliverance from Egypt in ancient time. The Israelites had offered up their lamb or kid in order that the destroying angel might pass over them. They were delivered, and the slave rabble emerged from Egypt as the people of God...The purging out of all leaven was done before the pascha, the passover victim (either a kid or a lamb), was offered in the temple. But Paul points out that Christ, our passover, has already been sacrificed" (Morris, p. 90).

An interesting sidelight in the preceding paragraph is the use of the word sincerity which comes from two Greek words "eile" and "krino" meaning to "judge by the sun." There existed among the Greeks a fraudulent practice of patching cracked pottery with wax, thus hiding imperfections until the sale was consummated. If, however, the pottery was exposed to the sun, the wax would melt and reveal the cracked pottery. So the Greek words "judged by the sun" mean that sincerity is real and genuine, no alloys or mixture of foreign matter, rather than something hidden or devious (Yeager, p. 418).

9 - 13 The apostle refers to a previous epistle which must have been lost in which Paul told the Corinthians not to keep company (sunanamignusthai) or associate (mingle) with a fornicator (a man or a woman who sell their bodies for lust) or an immoral person; that is, he must not be allowed to remain in the fellowship of the church. Paul does not imply that a member of the church should not try to convince the erring brother of his way. If after he is admonished to repent and forsake his sin, he does not do so, then he should be excluded from the fellowship of the church (Matthew 18:15 - 17). "One of the reasons why sinful saints continue in their sins is that they continue to enjoy the association and even the approbation of the members of their local churches" (Yeager, p. 420). Church members should not indulge in the sins of those outside the church, yet they should try to win them to the Lord. "In an imperfect world, Christians cannot stay away entirely from immoral people; otherwise they might as well leave the world (John 17:14 - 18)" (Kistemaker, p. 168). A Christian cannot live as a hermit or a recluse and still fulfill the Great Commission.

In verse 10 the list of sinners is increased to covetousness (pleonektais) or greed, extortioner (arpaxin) or exploiter and idolater (eidololatrais). We are to try to win them also while not condoning or participating in their sins; as long as we live in the world, some association with such men cannot be avoided. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries these people might be referred to as gangsters (bandits, hijackers and grafters) who form a combination of liquor, lewdness, and lawlessness for money and power. Paul's expression not altogether can mean "not in all circumstances," which indicates that the Christian should at least try to win the individual to the Lord.

If any member of the church at Corinth who is called a brother (in Christ) participates in fornication, covetousness, or is a railer (loidoros) or a reviler, or a drunkard (methusos) or and extortioner, Paul says that they should not eat with him. The church member is forbidden to eat a meal, a love feast, or even a meal at the church with such as is mentioned in verse 11; (social contact should be forbidden thus rebuking him for his sins). This means that the offending brother is to be shunned until he repents and turns from his sins. "There is to be no close fellowship with anyone who claims to be a Christian, but whose life belies his profession" (Morris, p. 92). If he does not repent and turn away from his sins after he is admonished to do so, then he is to be treated like a heathen man (Matthew 18:17).

Under the title, "The Company of Sinners is to be Avoided," Charles H. Spurgeon writes, "When a man is known to suffer from a sadly contagious disease none of his friends will come near the house. There is little need to warn them off, they are all too alarmed to come near. Why is it men are not so much afraid of the contagion of vice? How dare they run risks for themselves and (their) children by allowing evil companions to frequent their house? Sin is as infectious and far more deadly than the small-pox or fever. Flee, then, from every one who might lead you into it" (B. I. Volume XLVII, p. 402).

The church members have every right to judge those inside the church, but the Lord will judge those outside the church. Then Paul writes, "...Put away (exarate) or drive out from among yourselves that wicked person," like the Jews did in Old Testament days (Deuteronomy 17:2 - 7) The judgment of the saved in the church is the church's responsibility to judge; those outside are the sole responsibility of the Son of God (John 5:22).

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