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The Bible · 1067 of 1189

1 Corinthians 5

1.It 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 father’s 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: 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.

Asked of Guide

Why does Paul tell the Corinthians to 'deliver such an one unto Satan'?

Paul instructs the church to ‘deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh’ because the man’s persistent, named sin—having his father’s wife—threatens the congregation’s moral and spiritual health; removal aims at corrective suffering that leads to repentance and salvation ‘in the day of the Lord Jesus.’ He frames this as corporate responsibility: the community must ‘purge out… the old leaven’ so the body of Christ stays sincere and true.

Paul limits judgment to those ‘that are called a brother’ and distinguishes church discipline from judging outsiders, echoing the same concern in Matthew where Jesus speaks about church correction and in James where communal holiness matters. The action is restorative in purpose, not merely punitive; Paul’s language matches other New Testament calls for accountability within the assembly.

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