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60 lines
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Title = 'The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians';
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<p id="Chapter5" align="center">Commentary by A. R. FAUSSET<br>CHAPTER 5
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<p id="a1Co5_1"><a onclick="return mV('1Cr',5,'1-13');">1Cr 5:1-13</a>. THE INCESTUOUS PERSON AT CORINTH: THE CORINTHIANS REPROVED FOR CONNIVANCE, AND WARNED TO PURGE OUT THE BAD LEAVEN. QUALIFICATION OF HIS FORMER COMMAND AS TO ASSOCIATION WITH SINNERS OF THE WORLD.
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<p><b>1. commonly</b>—rather, "actually" [ALFORD]. Absolutely [BENGEL]. "It is reported," implies, that the Corinthians, though they "wrote" (<a onclick="return mV('1Cr',7,1);">1Cr 7:1</a>) to Paul on other points, gave him no information on those things which bore against themselves. These latter matters reached the apostle indirectly (<a onclick="return mV('1Cr',1,11);">1Cr 1:11</a>).
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<br><br><b>so much as named</b>—The oldest manuscripts and authorities omit "named": "Fornication of such a gross kind as (exists) not even among the heathen, so that one (of you) hath (in concubinage) his father's wife," that is, his stepmother, while his father is still alive (<a onclick="return mV('2Cr',7,12);">2Cr 7:12</a>; compare <a onclick="return mV('Lev',18,8);">Lev 18:8</a>). She was perhaps a heathen, for which reason he does not direct his rebuke against her (compare <a onclick="return mV('1Cr',5,12, 13);">1Cr 5:12, 13</a>). ALFORD thinks "have" means <i>have in marriage:</i> but the connection is called "fornication," and neither Christian nor Gentile <i>law</i> would have sanctioned such a <i>marriage,</i> however Corinth's notorious profligacy might wink at the concubinage.
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<p id="a1Co5_2"><b>2. puffed up</b>—with your own wisdom and knowledge, and the eloquence of your favorite teachers: at a time when ye ought to be "mourning" at the scandal caused to religion by the incest. Paul <i>mourned</i> because they did not mourn (<a onclick="return mV('2Cr',2,4);">2Cr 2:4</a>). We ought to <i>mourn</i> over the transgressions of others, and <i>repent</i> of our own (<a onclick="return mV('2Cr',12,21);">2Cr 12:21</a>) [BENGEL].
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<br><br><b>that</b>—ye have not felt such mourning as would lead to the result <i>that,</i> etc.
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<br><br><b>taken away from among you</b>—by excommunication. The incestuous person was hereby brought to bitter repentance, in the interval between the sending of the first and second Epistles (<a onclick="return mV('2Cr',2,'5-10');">2Cr 2:5-10</a>). Excommunication in the Christian Church corresponded to that in the Jewish synagogue, in there being a lighter and heavier form: the latter an utter separation from church fellowship and the Lord's house, the former exclusion from the Lord's Supper only but not from the Church.
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<p id="a1Co5_3"><b>3. as absent</b>—The best manuscripts read, "being absent."
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<br><br><b>present in spirit</b>—(<a onclick="return mV('2Ki',5,26);">2Ki 5:26</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Col',2,5);">Col 2:5</a>).
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<br><br><b>so done</b>—rather, "perpetrated," as the <i>Greek</i> word here is stronger than that for "done" in <a onclick="return mV('1Cr',5,2);">1Cr 5:2</a>. "So," that is, so scandalously while called a brother.
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<p id="a1Co5_4"><b>4. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ</b>—By His authority and as representing His <i>person</i> and will (<a onclick="return mV('2Cr',2,10);">2Cr 2:10</a>). Join this with "to deliver such a one unto Satan" (<a onclick="return mV('1Cr',5,5);">1Cr 5:5</a>). The clause, "When ye have been gathered together and my spirit (wherein I am 'present,' though 'absent in body,' <a onclick="return mV('1Cr',5,3);">1Cr 5:3</a>), with the power of our Lord Jesus," stands in a parenthesis between. Paul speaking of himself uses the word "spirit"; of Christ, "power." Christ's power was promised to be present with HIS Church "gathered together in His name" (<a onclick="return mV('Mat',18,'18-20');">Mat 18:18-20</a>): and here Paul by inspiration gives a special promise of his apostolic spirit, which in such cases was guided by the Holy Spirit, ratifying their decree passed according to his <i>judgment</i> ("I have judged," <a onclick="return mV('1Cr',5,3);">1Cr 5:3</a>), as though he were present in person (<a onclick="return mV('Jhn',20,'21-23');">Jhn 20:21-23</a>; <a onclick="return mV('2Cr',13,'3-10');">2Cr 13:3-10</a>). This power of infallible judgment was limited to the apostles; for they alone had the power of working miracles as their credentials to attest their infallibility. Their successors, to establish their claim to the latter, must produce the former (<a onclick="return mV('2Cr',12,2);">2Cr 12:2</a>). Even the apostles in ordinary cases, and where not specially and consciously inspired, were fallible (<a onclick="return mV('Act',8,13);">Act 8:13, 23</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Gal',2,'11-14');">Gal 2:11-14</a>).
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<p id="a1Co5_5"><b>5.</b> Besides excommunication (of which the Corinthians themselves had the power), Paul delegates here to the Corinthian Church <i>his own</i> special power as an apostle, of inflicting corporeal disease or death in punishment for sin ("to deliver to Satan such an one," that is, so heinous a sinner). For instances of this power, see <a onclick="return mV('Act',5,'1-11');">Act 5:1-11</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Act',13,11);">13:11</a>; <a onclick="return mV('1Ti',1,20);">1Ti 1:20</a>. As Satan receives power at times to try the godly, as Job (<a onclick="return mV('Job',2,'4-7');">Job 2:4-7</a>) and Paul (<a onclick="return mV('2Cr',12,7);">2Cr 12:7</a>; compare also as to Peter, <a onclick="return mV('Luk',22,31);">Luk 22:31</a>), much more the ungodly. Satan, the "accuser of the brethren" (<a onclick="return mV('Rev',12,10);">Rev 12:10</a>) and the "adversary" (<a onclick="return mV('1Pe',5,8);">1Pe 5:8</a>), demands the sinner for punishment on account of sin (<a onclick="return mV('Zec',3,1);">Zec 3:1</a>). When God lets Satan have his way, He is said to "deliver the sinner unto Satan" (compare <a onclick="return mV('Psa',109,6);">Psa 109:6</a>). Here it is not finally; but for the affliction of the body with disease, and even <i>death</i> (<a onclick="return mV('1Cr',11,30, 32);">1Cr 11:30, 32</a>), so as to <i>destroy fleshly lust.</i> He does not say, "for the destruction of the <i>body,</i>" for <i>it</i> shall share in redemption (<a onclick="return mV('Rom',8,23);">Rom 8:23</a>); but of the corrupt "flesh" which "cannot inherit the kingdom of God," and the lusts of which had prompted this offender to incest (<a onclick="return mV('Rom',7,5);">Rom 7:5</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Rom',8,9.10);">Rom 8:9-10</a>). The "destruction of the flesh" answers to "<i>mortify</i> the deeds of the <i>body</i>" (<a onclick="return mV('Rom',8,13);">Rom 8:13</a>), only that the latter is done by one's self, the former is effected by chastisement from God (compare <a onclick="return mV('1Pe',4,6);">1Pe 4:6</a>):
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<br><br><b>the spirit...saved</b>—the spiritual part of man, in the believer the organ of the Holy Spirit. Temporary affliction often leads to permanent salvation (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',83,16);">Psa 83:16</a>).
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<p id="a1Co5_6"><b>6.</b> Your glorying in your own attainments and those of your favorite teachers (<a onclick="return mV('1Cr',3,21);">1Cr 3:21</a>; <a onclick="return mV('1Cr',4,19);">1Cr 4:19</a>; <a onclick="return mV('1Cr',5,2);">1Cr 5:2</a>), while all the while ye connive at such a scandal, is quite unseemly.
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<br><br><b>a little leaven leaveth...whole lump</b>—(<a onclick="return mV('Gal',5,9);">Gal 5:9</a>), namely, with <i>present</i> complicity in the guilt, and the danger of future contagion (<a onclick="return mV('1Cr',15,33);">1Cr 15:33</a>; <a onclick="return mV('2Ti',2,17);">2Ti 2:17</a>).
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<p id="a1Co5_7"><b>7. old leaven</b>—The remnant of the "old" (<a onclick="return mV('Eph',4,'22-24');">Eph 4:22-24</a>) heathenish and natural corruption. The image is taken from the extreme care of the Jews in searching every corner of their houses, and "purging out" every particle of leaven from the time of killing the lamb before the Passover (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',16,3);">Deu 16:3-4</a>). So Christians are continually to search and purify their hearts (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',139,23, 24);">Psa 139:23-24</a>).
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<br><br><b>as ye are unleavened</b>—normally, and as far as your Christian calling is concerned: free from the leaven of sin and death (<a onclick="return mV('1Cr',6,11);">1Cr 6:11</a>). Paul often grounds exhortations on the assumption of Christian professors' <i>normal</i> state as realized (<a onclick="return mV('Rom',6,3,4);">Rom 6:3-4</a>) [ALFORD]. Regarding the Corinthian Church as the Passover "unleavened lump" or mass, he entreats them to correspond in fact with this their normal state. "For Christ our Passover (<a onclick="return mV('Exd',12,'5-11', '21-23');">Exd 12:5-11, 21-23</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Jhn',1,29);">Jhn 1:29</a>) <i>has been</i> (<i>English Version,</i> "is") sacrificed for us"; that is, as the Jews <i>began</i> the days of unleavened bread with the slaying of the Passover lamb, so, Christ our Passover <i>having been already slain,</i> let there be no leaven of evil in you who are the "unleavened lump." Doubtless he alludes to the Passover which had been two or three weeks before kept by the Jewish Christians (<a onclick="return mV('1Cr',16,8);">1Cr 16:8</a>): the Gentile Christians probably also refraining from leavened bread at the love-feasts. Thus the Jewish Passover naturally gave place to our Christian Easter. The time however, of <i>keeping feast</i> (metaphorical; that is, <i>leading the Christian life of joy</i> in Christ's finished work, compare <a onclick="return mV('Pro',15,15);">Pro 15:15</a>) among us Christians, corresponding to the Jewish Passover, is not limited, as the latter, to one season, but is ALL our time; for the transcendent benefits of the once-for-all completed sacrifice of <i>our</i> Passover Lamb extends to all the time of our lives and of this Christian dispensation; in no part of our time is the leaven of evil to be admitted.
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<br><br><b>For even</b>—an additional reason, besides that in <a onclick="return mV('1Cr',5,6);">1Cr 5:6</a>, and a more cogent one for purging out every leaven of evil; namely, that Christ has been already sacrificed, whereas the old leaven is yet unremoved, which ought to have been long ago purged out.
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<p id="a1Co5_8"><b>8. not...old leaven</b>—of our unconverted state as Jews or heathen.
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<br><br><b>malice</b>—the opposite of "sincerity," which allows no leaven of evil to be mixed up with good (<a onclick="return mV('Mat',16,6);">Mat 16:6</a>).
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<br><br><b>wickedness</b>—the opposite of "truth," which allows not evil to be mistaken for good. The <i>Greek</i> for "malice" means the evil <i>habit</i> of mind; "wickedness," the <i>outcoming</i> of the same in word and deed. The <i>Greek</i> for "sincerity" expresses literally, a thing which, when examined <i>by the sun's light,</i> is found pure and unadulterated.
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<p id="a1Co5_9"><b>9. I wrote...in an epistle</b>—rather, "in the Epistle": a former one not now extant. That Paul does not refer to the <i>present</i> letter is proved by the fact that no direction "not to company with fornicators" occurs in the previous part of it; also the words, "in an (or, <i>the</i>) epistle," could not have been added if he meant, "I have just written" (<a onclick="return mV('2Cr',10,10);">2Cr 10:10</a>). "<i>His letters</i>" (<i>plural;</i> not applying to merely <i>one</i>) confirm this. <a onclick="return mV('2Cr',7,8);">2Cr 7:8</a> also refers to our <i>first</i> Epistle, just as here a <i>former</i> letter is referred to by the same phrase. Paul probably wrote a former brief reply to inquiries of the Corinthians: <i>our</i> first Epistle, as it enters more fully into the same subject, has superseded the former, which the Holy Spirit did not design for the guidance of the Church in general, and which therefore has not been preserved. See my JFB for <a href="./Comm/jfb/1Cr/1Cr000.html"><i>Introduction</i></a>.
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<p id="a1Co5_10"><b>10.</b> Limitation of the prohibition alluded to in <a onclick="return mV('1Cr',5,9);">1Cr 5:9</a>. As in dissolute Corinth to "company with no fornicators," etc., would be almost to company with none in the (unbelieving) world; ye need not <i>utterly</i> ("altogether") forego intercourse with fornicators, etc., of the unbelieving world (compare <a onclick="return mV('1Cr',10,27);">1Cr 10:27</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Jhn',17,15);">Jhn 17:15</a>; <a onclick="return mV('1Jo',5,18, 19);">1Jo 5:18-19</a>). As "fornicators" sin against themselves, so "extortioners" against their neighbors, and "idolaters" against God. The attempt to get "out of the world," in violation of God's will that believers should remain in it but keep themselves from its evil, led to monasticism and its consequent evils.
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<p id="a1Co5_11"><b>11. But now</b>—"Now" does not express <i>time,</i> but "<i>the case being so,</i>" namely, that to avoid fornicators, etc., <i>of the world,</i> you would have to leave the world altogether, which would be absurd. So "now" is used in <a onclick="return mV('Hbr',11,16);">Hbr 11:16</a>. Thus we avoid making the apostle <i>now</i> retract a command which he had before given.
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<br><br><b>I have written</b>—that is, my meaning in the letter I wrote was "not to keep company," etc.
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<br><br><b>a brother</b>—contrasted with a "fornicator...<i>of the world</i>" (<a onclick="return mV('1Cr',5,10);">1Cr 5:10</a>). There is less danger in associating with open worldlings than with carnal professors. Here, as in <a onclick="return mV('Eph',5,3,5);">Eph 5:3, 5</a>, "covetousness" is joined with "fornication": the common fount of both being "the fierce and ever fiercer longing of the creature, which has turned from God, to fill itself with the inferior objects of sense" [TRENCH, <i>Greek Synonyms of the New Testament</i>]. Hence "idolatry" is associated with them: and the covetous man is termed an "idolater" (<a onclick="return mV('Num',25,1,2);">Num 25:1-2</a>). The Corinthians did not fall into open idolatry, but ate things offered to idols, so making a compromise with the heathen; just as they connived at fornication. Thus this verse prepares for the precepts in <a onclick="return mV('1Cr',8,4);">1Cr 8:4</a>, etc. Compare the similar case of fornication, combined with a similar idolatrous compromise, after the pattern of Israel with the Midianites (<a onclick="return mV('Rev',2,14);">Rev 2:14</a>).
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<br><br><b>no not to eat</b>—not to sit at the same table with such; whether at the love-feasts (<i>agapae</i>) or in private intercourse, much more at the Lord's table: at the last, too often now the guests "are not as children in one family, but like a heterogeneous crowd of strangers in an inn" [BENGEL] (compare <a onclick="return mV('Gal',2,12);">Gal 2:12</a>; <a onclick="return mV('2Jo',1,10,11);">2Jo 1:10-11</a>).
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<p id="a1Co5_12"><b>12. what have I to do</b>—You might have easily understood that my concern is not with unbelievers <i>outside</i> the Church, but that I referred to those within it.
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<br><br><b>also</b>—Implying, <i>Those within</i> give me enough to do without those outside.
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<br><br><b>do not ye,</b> etc.—Ye judge your fellow citizens, not strangers: much more should I [BENGEL]. Rather, Is it not <i>your duty</i> to judge them that are within? <i>God</i> shall judge them that are without: do you look at home [GROTIUS]. God is the Judge of the salvation of the heathen, not we (<a onclick="return mV('Rom',2,'12-16');">Rom 2:12-16</a>). Paul here gives an anticipatory censure of their going to law with saints before heathen tribunals, instead of judging such causes among themselves within.
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<p id="a1Co5_13"><b>13. put away from among yourselves that wicked</b>—Sentence of excommunication in language taken from <a onclick="return mV('Deu',24,7);">Deu 24:7</a>.
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