THE CORINTHIANS MUST DEAL WITH THE IMMORALITY IN THEIR MIDST (5:1-13). The Great Sin Among Them (5:1-2) ‘It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles, that one of you has his father's wife. And YOU (emphatic) are puffed up and... [ Continue Reading ]
IMPORTANT SCANDALS THAT HAVE TO BE DEALT WITH (5:1-6:20). Having dealt with the central spiritual concern which has been to do with their divisiveness over secondary matters, over ‘the wisdom of words', which were in danger of squeezing out ‘the word of the cross' (1 Corinthians 1:18), Paul now mov... [ Continue Reading ]
PAUL DEMANDS JUDGMENT ON IT BY THE WHOLE CHURCH (5:3-5). ‘For I truly, being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has so wrought this thing.' While they have been so lax Paul has been far from lax. What has happened has grieved him. Even at a... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For our Passover has also been sacrificed, even Christ.' The Corinthians were glorying in what they saw as their high spiritualit... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For this reason let us go on keeping the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.' This leads on to the consideration of wider sins. Life is now to be for us a continual Passover. ‘Let us go on keeping the fe... [ Continue Reading ]
‘I wrote to you in my letter to have no company with fornicators.' Corinth was famous for its licentiousness and this had permeated the Christian church, helped on by false teaching. Paul had written to them previously concerning this, warning them against sexual misbehaviour and those who indulged... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous and extortioners, or with idolaters. For then it would be necessary for you to go out of the world.' He points out that he was not talking about dealings with non-Christians when he said avoid such people. Otherwise Christians... [ Continue Reading ]
‘But now I write to you not to keep company if any man who is named a brother is a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such a one not to eat.' However, when those who claim to be Christians behave in the ways described they are to be ostracis... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For what have I to do with judging those who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside, while those who are outside God judges? Put away the wicked man from among yourselves.' It is not Paul's business to act as an official judge on non-Christians, those outside the church, nor is it the... [ Continue Reading ]