The question, ‘Shall I come to you in mildness or with severity?' with which chap. 4 closes prepares the way for the extreme sternness and solemnity with which the distressing topic of this chapter is handled.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 5:1. IT IS ACTUALLY REPORTED THAT THERE IS FORNICATION AMONG YOU. The word is used here in its widest sense for all violations of the seventh commandment. AND SUCH FORNICATION AS IS NOT EVEN AMONG THE GENTILES, [1] THAT ONE OF YOU HATH HIS FATHER'S WIFE not his own mother, but his ste... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 5:2. AND YE ARE PUFFED UP as if all were right with you AND HAVE NOT RATHER MOURNED that such a blot should come upon your community, (in order) THAT HE THAT HAD DONE THIS DEED MIGHT (by formal ejection) BE TAKEN AWAY FROM AMONG YOU. Sharp measures are therefore peremptorily ordered to... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 5:3. FOR I VERILY, BEING ABSENT IN BODY, BUT PRESENT IN SPIRIT, HAVE ALREADY (in the exercise of my apostolic authority) JUDGED HIM THAT HATH SO WROUGHT THIS THING, IN THE NAME OF OUR LORD JESUS [1] in whose name, as the unseen yet ever-present Lord of the Church, every act of discipli... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 5:6. YOUR GLORYING IS NOT GOOD is out of place, unseemly. KNOW YE NOT THAT A LITTLE LEAVEN LEAVENETH THE WHOLE LAMP? ‘'Tis only one case, ye say; but are ye so ignorant as not to know that the communicative properties of good and evil are as leaven (Matthew 13:3; Matthew 5:13; 1 Corin... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 5:7. PURGE OUT [1] THE OLD LEAVEN. Referring to the practice enjoined in Exodus 12:15, and almost superstitiously observed at the Passover time, of removing every particle of leaven from their houses, the apostle would have them put away in the person of this flagrant offender, that co... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 5:8. THEREFORE LET US KEEP THE FEAST ‘keep festival' as the word signifies. As the Passover meal was designed to strengthen the Israelites for their wilderness journey, so is this for ours heavenward. Theirs was an annual festival; ours is the continuous, uninterrupted, glad festival-k... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 5:9. I WROTE UNTO YOU IN MY EPISTLE NOT TO COMPANY WITH FORNICATORS. This statement raises a question which has occasioned not a little discussion What Epistle is here referred to? ‘The present Epistle,' say some, viewing what follows as a sort of postscript to the preceding verses. (S... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 5:10. 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. Observe the caution “not _altogether_ ” restricting the allowed intercourse with them to what was _necessary_ and _safe._ The... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 5:11. BUT NOW I WRITE ONTO YOU I did it before in a general way, but “now” I do it more fully, NOT TO KEEP COMPANY, IF ANY MAN THAT IS NAMED A BROTHER one in full standing as a member. BE A FORNICATOR... WITH SUCH A ONE, NO, NOT TO EAT in friendly meals, or any way implying brotherly... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 5:12. FOR WHAT HAVE I TO DO WITH JUDGING THEM THAT ARE WITHOUT (the Christian pale)? As the Jews so described those outside the covenant, our Lord and the apostles borrowed the phrase from them (Mark 4:11; Colossians 4:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:12). DO NOT YE JUDGE THEM THAT ARE WITHIN? a... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 5:13. WHERE-AS THEM THAT ARE WITHOUT GOD JUDGETH that is His sole prerogative, and to Him ye may well leave it. PUT AWAY THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES. The marked abruptness with which the subject is thus dismissed well conveys the repulsiveness of the subject to the apostle's... [ Continue Reading ]