IT IS REPORTED COMMONLY] RV 'It is actually reported.' HIS FATHER'S WIFE] The father may have been dead or separated from his wife: the stepson had then married her. The Corinthian Church was evidently unconscious that there was anything sinful in such a union. Had the man and woman been living in s... [ Continue Reading ]
PARAPHRASE. 'A rumour has reached me that unchastity exists among you, and that one of your number has taken his stepmother as his wife, an act which the very heathen abhor. (2) How can you maintain your attitude of self-satisfaction in presence of this scandal? Why do you not rather humiliate yours... [ Continue Reading ]
_(B) 5:1-13. THE CASE OF IMMORALITY_ The Apostle had written (1 Corinthians 4:21) of coming to exercise authority. Here was a case in which it was needed. A man had created a scandal by marrying his stepmother, and the Corinthians had done nothing. They had allowed him to retain his membership in t... [ Continue Reading ]
PUFFED UP] This is probably to be taken generally as referring to their boastfulness about their spiritual privileges and attainments: cp. 1 Corinthians 4:6. The Apostle expresses surprise that the scandal among them did not humble their pride.... [ Continue Reading ]
HAVE JUDGED ALREADY] taking their concurrence for granted; or giving them a suggestion trusting that they would follow it at once. He here asserts his authority to guide them in matters of discipline; and it was over this question of authority, and not over that of the offender's conduct, that the d... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE NAME OF OUR LORD JESUS] Placed emphatically at the beginning, to indicate the Church's final authority for taking this step to enforce discipline: cp. Matthew 18:18; Matthew 18:20. WHEN YE ARE GATHERED TOGETHER, etc.] St. Paul did not take discipline out of the hands of the Church. He stepped... [ Continue Reading ]
TO DELIVER.. UNTO SATAN] The offender was to be solemnly excommunicated and handed over to Satan, who had power to cause disease, in the belief that sufferings of body would assail him and work repentance and salvation in him, even if they ended in bodily death: cp. Luke 13:16; 2 Corinthians 12:7.... [ Continue Reading ]
YOUR GLORYING] see on 1 Corinthians 5:2. A LITTLE LEAVEN] Leaven is here used of corrupting influences as elsewhere in the NT., except in our Lord's parable of the leaven: cp. Matthew 16:6; Matthew 16:12; Mark 8:15; Luke 12:1; Galatians 5:9. A low ideal of conduct even in one case has farreaching ef... [ Continue Reading ]
THE OLD LEAVEN] Not (or, at any rate, not only) the unchaste sinner, but the spirit in the Church which is indifferent to the sin. CHRIST OUR PASSOVER] The mention of leaven, which was associated with the Passover, causes the Apostle to think of that institution; and leads him to speak of Christ in... [ Continue Reading ]
IN AN EPISTLE] This clearly refers to a previous letter no longer extant and prior to any of our Epistles to the Corinthians. See Intro.... [ Continue Reading ]
PARAPHRASE. 'This is just what I wrote to you in my former letter—that you were to have no connexion with men of impure life. (10) I did not mean that you were to have nothing to do with the heathen, who are greedy and covetous and idolaters, in matters of business and such like, for that is impossi... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT NOW I HAVE WRITTEN] RM 'As it is, I wrote.' The meaning is, 'What I wrote was,' etc. The Corinthians probably asked St. Paul in their letter in reply to his first one, what they were to do when they met non-Christians in business and society. NOT TO EAT] They might be compelled to meet with such... [ Continue Reading ]
THEM.. THAT ARE WITHOUT] i.e. the heathen generally; all outside the Church. DO NOT YE] They exercised discipline in some cases though they had not recognised its necessity in this one.... [ Continue Reading ]