1 Corinthians 5 - Introduction

The incestuous person should be a cause of shame unto them, and not of rejoicing. The old leaven is to be purged out. Heinous offenders are to be shunned and avoided.

Anno Domini 57.

THE messengers from Corinth, as well as the members of the family of Chloe, had informed the Apostle, that one of the brethren was cohabiting with his father's wife, in his father's lifetime. In this chapter therefore, St. Paul reproved the whole Corinthian church, for tolerating a species of fornication, which was abhorred even by the heathens, 1 Corinthians 5:1.—And this scandal was the greater, that they were puffed up with pride, on account of the knowledge and learning of the teacher by whose influence it was tolerated, 1 Corinthians 5:2.—But to make the Corinthians sensible, that their boasting of a teacher who had patronized such an enormity, was criminal, as well as to correct the enormityitself,theApostle ordered them forthwith, in a public assembly of the church called for the purpose, to deliver the offender to Satan, for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit being reformed, he might be saved in the day of the Lord, 1 Corinthians 5:3.—Then he shewed them the necessity of cutting off the incestuous person, by comparing vice unpunished to leaven, on account of its contagious nature in corrupting a whole society, 1 Corinthians 5:6.—And because this was written a little before the passover, when the Jews put away all leaven out of their houses as the symbol of corruption or wickedness, the Apostle desired the Corinthians to cleanse out the old leaven of lewdness, by cutting the incestuous person out of the church: for, said he, Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. Also he exhorted them to keep the feast of the Lord's supper, which was instituted in commemoration of Christ's being sacrificed for us, and which was to be celebrated by them, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, 1 Corinthians 5:7.

Lest however the Corinthians might have understood the Apostle's command to excommunicate the incestuous person, and to cleanse out the old leaven, as an order not to have any communication with the unconverted heathens, he told them, that was not his meaning; since in that case they must have gone out of the world, 1 Corinthians 5:9.—And to make his meaning plain, he now wrote more explicitly, that if any person who professed himself a christian, was a known fornicator, &c. they were to punish him by keeping no company with him, 1 Corinthians 5:11.—This distinction in the treatment of heathen and Christian sinners, the Apostle shewed them was reasonable, from the consideration, that church censures are not to be inflicted on persons who are without, but on them who are within the church, 1 Corinthians 5:12.—And therefore, while they left it to God to judge and punish the wicked heathens, it was their duty to put away the incestuous person from among themselves, and to leave the woman with whom he lived, to the judgment of God, because she was a heathen, 1 Corinthians 5:13.

The Apostle's order to the Corinthians, to keep no company with wicked persons, though seemingly severe, was in the true spirit of the gospel.For the laws of Christ do not, like the laws of men, correct offenders by fines and imprisonments, and corporal punishments, or outward violence of any kind, but by earnest and affectionate representations, admonitions, and reproofs, addressed to their reason and conscience, to make them through grace sensible of their fault, and to induce them to amend. If this remedyproves ineffectual, their fellow-christians are to shew their disapprobation of their evil courses, by carefully avoiding their company. So Christ has ordered, Matthew 18:15. Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone; if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.—16. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.—17. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man, and a publican. Earnest representation, therefore, from the injured party, followed by grave admonition and reproof from the ministers of religion, when the injured party's representation is ineffectual, are means which Christ has appointed for reclaiming an offender. But if these moral and religious means prove ineffectual, Christ has ordered the society of which the offender is a member, to shun his company and conversation, that he may be ashamed, and that others may be preserved from the contagion of his example. This last remedy will be used with the greatest effect, if the resolution of the society, to have no intercourse with the offender, especially in religious matters, is openly declared by a sentence deliberately and solemnly pronounced in a public assembly, (as in the case of the incestuous Corinthian,) and is steadily carried into execution.

The wholesome discipline which Christ instituted in his church at the beginning, was rigorouslyandimpartially exercised by the primitive christians, towards their offending brethren, and with the happiest success, in preserving purity of manners among themselves. In modern times, however, this salutary discipline has been much neglected in the church; but it has been taken up by gaming clubs, who exclude from their society all who refuse to pay their game debts, and shun their company on all occasions, as persons absolutely infamous. By this sort of excommunication, and by giving to game debts the appellation of debts of honour, the winners on the one hand, without the help of law, and even in contradiction to it, have rendered their unjust claims effectual; while the losers, on the other, are reduced to the necessity, either of paying, or of being shunned by their companions as infamous.—I mention this as an example, to shew what a powerful influence the approbation or disapprobation of those with whom mankind associate, have upon their conduct; and from that consideration, to excite the friends of religion to support her against the attempts of the wicked, by testifying on every fit occasion, their disapprobation of vice, and their contempt of its abettors; and more especially by shunning the company and conversation ofthe openly profane, however dignified their station in life, or however great their fortune may be.

Another means which St. Paul makes use of to bring off the Corinthians from their false apostle, and to stop their veneration of him and their glorying in him, is by representing to them the fault and disorder which was committed in that church, by not judging and expelling the fornicator; which neglect, as may be guessed, was owing to that faction. 1. Because it is natural for a faction to support and protect an offender that is of their side. 2. From the great fear St. Paul was in, whether they would obey him in censuring the offender, as appears by the second Epistle; which he could not fear but from the opposite faction, they who had preserved their respect to him being sure to follow his orders. 3. From what he says, ch. 1 Corinthians 4:16 after he had told them, 1 Corinthians 5:6 of that chapter, that they should not be puffed up for any other against him, for so the whole scope of his discourse here imports, he beseeches them to be his followers, that is to say, leaving their other guides, to follow him in punishing the offender. For that, we may conclude,from his immediately insisting on it so earnestly, he had in his view, when he besought them to be followers of him: and consequently, that they might join withhim, and take him for their leader, ch. 1 Corinthians 5:3 he makes himself by his spirit, as his proxy, the president of their assembly, to be convened for the punishing of that criminal. 4. It may further be suspected from what St. Paul says, ch. 1 Corinthians 6:1 that the opposite party, to stop the church censure, pretended that this was a matter to be judged by the civil magistrate: nay, possibly, from what is said 1 Corinthians 5:6 of that chapter, it may be gathered, that they had got it brought before the heathen judge, or at least from 1 Corinthians 5:12 that they pleaded that what he had done was lawful, and might be justified before the magistrate: for the judging spoken of ch. 6 must be understood to relate to the same matter which it does ch. 5, it being a continuation of the same discourse and argument; asis easy to be observed by any one who will read it without regarding the divisions into Chapter s and verses, whereby unlearned people (not to say others) are often disturbed in reading the Holy Scripture, and hindered from observing the true sense and coherence of it; though it must be granted that these divisions are of considerable use. The whole 6th chapter is spent in prosecuting the business of the fornicator, begun in the 5th. That this is so, is evident from the latter end, as well as beginning of the 6th chapter: and therefore, what St. Paul says of lawful, ch. 1 Corinthians 6:12 may without any violence be supposed to be said in answer to some, who might have alleged in favour of the fornicator, that what he had done was lawful, and might be justified by the laws of the country which he was under: why else should St. Paul subjoin so many arguments (wherewith he concludes the 6th chapter, and the subject) to prove the fornication in question to be, by the laws of the Gospel, an enormous sin? See ch. 1 Corinthians 5:1 to 1 Corinthians 6:20 and Locke.