1 Corinthians 5

People are actually reporting that there is sexual sin among you, and a kind of sexual sin that is not even found among people outside the faith: a man is living with his father's wife.

1It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.

Note"Fornication" in the King James is a broad term for sexual sin in general, not only sex between unmarried people. "His father's wife" is the standard biblical way of saying stepmother rather than mother, and both Jewish law and Roman law forbade such a union; under Roman law it counted as incest. "Gentiles" means non-Jews, that is, the wider pagan society, so Paul's point is that even outsiders with no Jewish scruples did not tolerate this.

2And you are proud of yourselves! You should have been filled with grief instead, and you should have removed the man who did this from your group.

2And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.

Note"Puffed up" is the King James rendering of a Greek word meaning inflated or swollen, used throughout this letter for the Corinthians' self-importance. "Mourned" refers to formal, visible grief, the kind shown at a death.

3As for me, even though I am not there with you in body, I am with you in spirit. I have already reached a decision about the man who did this, just as if I were standing there.

3For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,

Note"Verily" simply means truly or indeed. The contrast between "absent in body" and "present in spirit" was a familiar way of speaking in ancient letters: the writer's authority and person were felt to be carried by the letter itself.

4Here is what to do. When you come together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, with my spirit there among you and with the power of our Lord Jesus,

4In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

NoteThe sentence in Greek runs on without clear punctuation, and it is genuinely unclear which phrases attach to which: "in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" could modify the gathering, or Paul's judgment, or the handing over in the next verse. Translations differ, and the rendering preserves the sequence as it stands.

5hand this man over to Satan, so that his body is destroyed and his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord Jesus.

5To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Note"The flesh" translates a word that can mean the physical body or a person's sinful self, and readers have long disagreed about which is meant here, so what the "destruction" involves is disputed. "The day of the Lord" is an Old Testament phrase for the day of God's final judgment.

6Your boasting is not a good thing. Don't you know that a small bit of yeast works its way through the whole batch of dough?

6Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

Note"Glorying" means boasting. "Leaven" is yeast, in the ancient world usually a lump of fermented dough saved from a previous batch and worked into the new one, so a very small piece did in fact change the whole mass. The "lump" is the batch of dough.

7So clean out the old yeast, and you will be a fresh batch of dough, without any yeast, which is what you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed for us.

7Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

NoteBefore Passover, Jewish households searched the house and cleared out every trace of leaven, which is the practice behind "purge out the old leaven." The Passover lamb was killed on the eve of the festival; calling Christ "our passover" identifies him with that lamb.

8So let us keep the feast, not with the old yeast, and not with the yeast of spite and evil, but with bread that has no yeast at all: the bread of honesty and truth.

8Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Note"The feast" is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the seven days following Passover during which only bread made without yeast was eaten. "Sincerity" here carries its older sense of being pure or unmixed rather than merely honest in speech.

9In my earlier letter I told you not to associate with people who are sexually immoral.

9I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:

Note"Epistle" means letter. Paul refers to an earlier letter to Corinth that has not survived; what we call First Corinthians is at least his second letter to them. "To company with" means to keep company with, to associate.

10I did not mean the sexually immoral people of this world in general, or the greedy, or those who cheat others out of money, or those who worship idols. To avoid them all, you would have to leave the world.

10Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.

Note"Covetous" means greedy for what belongs to others. "Extortioners" translates a word for those who seize property by force or fraud, closer to swindlers or robbers than to blackmailers. "Then must ye needs go out of the world" is a way of saying you would have no choice but to leave human society altogether.

11What I am telling you now is this: do not associate with anyone who calls himself a fellow believer and yet is sexually immoral, or greedy, or worships idols, or tears people down with his words, or gets drunk, or cheats others. Do not even sit down to eat with such a person.

11But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.

Note"Called a brother" means someone counted as a fellow member of the congregation. "Railer" is one who attacks others with abusive speech. Refusing to eat with someone was a strong public act in this culture: shared meals marked who belonged to a group, and the early churches ate together as part of their common life.

12It is not my business to judge those outside the church. Aren't you the ones who judge those inside it?

12For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?

Note"Them that are without" and "them that are within" are standard idiom for those outside and inside the community, here the church.

13God is the one who judges those outside. So remove that evil person from among you.

13But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

NoteThe last sentence quotes a formula repeated several times in Deuteronomy, "put away the evil from among you," used there for offenses that required expulsion or execution. The Greek verb translated "judgeth" can be read as present or future, so "God judges" and "God will judge" are both defensible.