1 Corinthians 5:9-10

“I wrote unto you in my epistle not to company with fornicators; 10. not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous and extortioners or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.”

Paul begins with recalling the terms of which he made use (1 Corinthians 5:9); then he sets aside the false sense which had been attached to them (1 Corinthians 5:10), and states his real judgment (1 Corinthians 5:11); finally, he justifies his judgment in 1 Corinthians 5:12-13. ᾿Εν τῇ ἐπιστολῇ, literally, in the Epistle, the one you know. It is vain for Chrysostom, Erasmus, Lange, to allege that Paul alludes to 1 Corinthians 5:2; 1 Corinthians 5:6-7 of this same chapter, or for Lardner to attempt to find here the announcement of what is about to follow, 1 Corinthians 5:10-13. It is easy to see that nothing in what precedes contained the direction given here, and that the ἔγραψα, I wrote, can only refer to the rectification of an idea which had been fathered on Paul, and which had been reported to him. A correspondence between Paul and the Church had certainly preceded our Epistle; comp. 1 Corinthians 7:1: “Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me.” In 2 Corinthians 7:8, Paul refers, using the same expression, to a previous letter. Had there not been dogmatic reasons for denying the possibility of the loss of an apostolic document, this meaning would not have been contested.

The term to company (mingle) with, συναναμίγνυσθαι, strictly denotes living in an intimate and continuous relation with one, σύν emphasizing the intimacy, and ἀνά the repetition of the acts. Does the rupture demanded by the apostle refer to the conduct of Christians in private life, or to ecclesiastical communion? In any case, the Corinthians could not have thought of an ecclesiastical rupture with people with whom no ecclesiastical bond existed. Did they not apply Paul's regulation to sinners who were yet outside of the Church? We may see in 2Th 3:14 how the expression “not to company with” is synonymous with στέλλεσθαι ἀπό, to hold aloof from, of 1 Corinthians 5:6; and in that context the term certainly refers to private life. Finally, if the matter in question here were the ecclesiastical relation, the apostle would not have to say to believers, “Do not company with the vicious,” but, “Do not allow the vicious to company with you.” This precept of Paul's is parallel to that of John, Second Epistle, 1 Corinthians 5:10: “If any one bringeth not this teaching, receive him not into your house, and give him no greeting.”