1 Corinthians 5

1 Corinthians 5
1 Corinthians 7:33-8:4 in Papyrus 15, written in the 3rd century.
Book First Epistle to the Corinthians
Bible part New Testament
Order in the Bible part 7
Category Pauline epistles

1 Corinthians 5 is the fifth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It is authored by Paul the Apostle and Sosthenes in Ephesus.[1][2] In this short chapter, Paul deals with an issue of sexual immorality in the Corinthian church.

Text

Structure

The New King James Version organises this chapter as follows:

The Pulpit Commentary also divides the chapter into two parts:

  • Verses 1-8 - Excommunication of an incestuous offender
  • Verses 9-13 - Correction of a mistaken inference which they had deduced from a former letter of St. Paul's [3]

Sexual immorality and exclusion

"The censure of the party-divisions [addressed in the previous chapters] is concluded",[4] and Paul moves on without transition to a "widely" [5] or "universally" [6] reported issue of a member of the Corinthian church living with his father's wife and the church failing to remove this man from their fellowship.[7] Paul criticises the church for its arrogance in not taking action, which might have been due to the factional nature of the church or to a false understanding of Christian liberty.[8]

Verse 6

New King James Version

Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?[9]
  • Your glorying is not good

Their glorying in their outward flourishing condition, in their riches and wealth, and in their ministers, in their wisdom and parts when under such an humbling dispensation; and especially if their glorying was in the sin itself, and their connivance at it, it was far from being good, it was very criminal, as the consequence of it was dangerous.[10]

  • Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

This, in nature, is what everybody knows; and the proverb, which is much used by the Jews,[11] was common in the mouths of all, and the meaning of it easy to be understood: thus, whether applied to the leaven of false doctrine, nothing is more manifest, than when this is let alone, and a stop is not put to it, it increases to more ungodliness; or to vice and immorality, as here; which if not taken notice of by a church, is not faithfully reproved and severely censured, as the case requires, will endanger the whole community; it may spread by example, and, under the connivance of the church, to the corrupting of good manners, and infecting of many.[10]

Paul's previous letter

Verse 9 refers to an earlier letter written by Paul to the Corinthians, sometimes called the "warning letter" or the "pre-canonical letter".[12] Paraphrase versions like J. B. Philips' translation and the New Testament for Everyone explicitly call this a "previous" letter, supplying a word which is not in the original text.[13] The previous letter had warned members of the church not to associate with people living immoral lives.

Verse 13

New King James Version

But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”[14]

Cross references: Deuteronomy 17:7; 19:19; 22:21, 24; 24:7

See also

References

  1. ↑ Halley, Henry H. Halley's Bible Handbook: an Abbreviated Bible Commentary. 23rd edition. Zondervan Publishing House. 1962.
  2. ↑ Holman Illustrated Bible Handbook. Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. 2012.
  3. ↑ Pulpit Commentary on 1 Corinthians 5, accessed 24 March 2017
  4. ↑ Meyer's NT Commentary on 1 Corinthians 5, accessed 24 March 2017
  5. ↑ 1 Corinthians 5:1 - Holman Christian Standard Bible
  6. ↑ 1 Corinthians 5:1 - Darby Translation
  7. ↑ 1 Corinthians 5:2 - New Living Translation
  8. ↑ Matthew Henry's Commentary on 1 Corinthians 5, accessed 24 March 2017
  9. ↑ 1 Corinthians 5:6
  10. 1 2 John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible, - 1 Corinthians 5:6
  11. ↑ Neve Shalom apud Caphtor, fol. 41. 1.
  12. ↑ Jerusalem Bible, note e at 1 Cor. 5:9
  13. ↑ 1 Corinthians 5:9; 1 Corinthians 5:9
  14. ↑ 1 Corinthians 5:13
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