1 Corinthians 5
What Happens in This Chapter
Paul hears that a man in the church at Corinth is living with his father's wife, and that the church is proud instead of sad. He tells them to put the man out of their group, and says a little yeast spreads through a whole lump of dough. Paul then explains an earlier letter: he did not mean to avoid everyone in the world who does wrong, but people who call themselves believers and keep doing these things. He ends by saying God judges those outside the church, while the church must remove the wicked person from among itself.
Plain reading written for kids. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea at a time.
It 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.
1People everywhere are saying there is sexual sin among you. Sexual sin means using the body in wrong ways with another person. Even people who do not follow God do not allow this kind. One man is living with his father's wife.
The old word "fornication" means sexual sin. "Gentiles" means people who were not Jewish and did not worship God.
2And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
2And you are proud of yourselves! You should be sad instead. You should have put that man out of your group.
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,
3My body is far away from you. But my heart and mind are with you. I have already decided what should happen to the man who did this. I decided as if I were standing right there.
4In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
4Meet together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. My spirit will be with you. The power of our Lord Jesus will be there too.
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.
5Then hand this man over to Satan, God's enemy, so his flesh is destroyed. Then his spirit can be saved on the day the Lord Jesus comes.
"The flesh" means a person's body, or the sinful part of a person. Paul does not explain more than that.
6Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
6Your bragging is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast spreads through the whole lump of dough?
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:
7So clean out the old yeast. Then you will be a fresh new lump, which is what you really are. Christ is our Passover lamb, and he was offered up for us.
Leaven is yeast, the stuff that makes bread puff up. At the Passover meal, God's people ate flat bread made with no yeast.
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.
8So let us keep the feast. Not with the old yeast of meanness and evil. Let us use bread with no yeast, which is honesty and truth.
9I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
9In my letter I told you not to spend your time with people who do sexual sin.
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.
10I did not mean every person in the world who does that. I did not mean greedy people, or cheaters, or people who worship false gods. To avoid all of them, you would have to leave the world.
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.
11Here is what I meant. Someone calls himself a brother in Christ, but he does sexual sin. Or he is greedy, or worships false gods, or says cruel things. Or he gets drunk, or cheats people. Do not spend your time with him. Do not even eat with him.
12For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
12It is not my job to judge people outside the church. But you are the ones who judge the people inside it.
13But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
13God is the one who judges the people outside. So put that wicked person out from among you.
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