1 Corinthians 5

This morning we come to chapter 5 of 1 Corinthians. This is one of the most infamous chapters of 1 Corinthians. As Paul opens up chapter 5 he begins to rebuke the church at Corinth for their open acceptance of sexual sin. He moves from asking them at the end of Chapter 4, “do you want me to come with a spirit of love and gentleness, or do you want me to bring the rod,” to It is actually reported among you...”

The question at the end of chapter 4 alone should have woke the corinthian church up, and for that matter it ought to wake the church today up.

As we unpack chapter 5 this morning it is important to understand the Main Idea or the thrust of the chapter. What is it that Paul wanted the church then and now to take away from this paragraph of his letter.

John MacArthur explains, “Paul’s thrust in this chapter is for discipline of persistently sinning church members. He presents the need, the reason, and the sphere of the discipline that should be imposed.” (pg. 122)

We are going to break the chapter into three exhortations Paul is calling to the church too.

I. Do not be arrogant about sexual sin.

II. Do not let unrepentant sin remain in the church.

III. Do no associate with immoral church members.

Paul begins chapter 5 by, warning the church,

I. Do not be arrogant about sexual sin. (5:1)

This the first point we will consider in chapter 5. is the sin committed at Corinth. As you will see as Paul defines the primary sin he is addressing, he moves from the individual sin to the corporate sin that he continues to call out throughout this letter.

Now before unpack verse 1, first of all I want us to understand again the context in Corinth. Corinth was an ungodly city. A city of rampant sexual sin. However, it is important to remember, although Aphrodite the greek goddess associated with love and temple prostitution was worshipped there, we don’t need to assume that sexual sin was only an issue in Corinth.

Bruce Winter writes,

The New Bible Commentary Background

It is a gross exaggeration to say that the Corinthians’ leanings towards immorality were a result of her patronage, and wrong to imply that the sexual sins of the Corinthian Christians could be explained because of her. Immorality, whether fornication, adultery or incest, was not confined to Corinth.

You may ask why is it important to not blame all of their sexual deviance on Aphrodite?

Let me ask you this question, do we worship Aphrodite in America, in GA, in Douglasville? Is sexual sin still a problem in the church today? Absolutely, so as wicked as it is to worship a false God and commit idolatry, Paul is about to rebuke the church for committing and accepting sexual sin as a result of arrogance not Aphrodite.

Look with me at verse 1.

1 Corinthians 5:1 ESV

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife.

A. The sin of sexual immorality.

Paul comes right out of the gate, writing,

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you,

He doesn’t dance around the problem, he doesn’t write in code to try and cover up the sin, he boldly states, I have gotten word that there is sexual immorality going on in the body of Christ at Corinth.

When Paul uses the term sexual immorality he is referring to unlawful sexual intercourse, prostitution, unchastity, fornication. (BDAG)

In other words, any sexual behavior committed outside of the union of marriage.

Don’t miss Paul’s phrasing here in verse 1, It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you,

In other words, I can’t believe what I am hearing. It is unbelievable what has been reported to me. I am shocked by these reports of sexual sin happening in the church.

It is so bad, that the pagans don’t even tolerate this kind of sexual deviance. In the words of RC Sproul,

What is Wrong with You People!

Sexual sin is one that is warned against throughout the Scriptures. It is not whispered about as some even in our camp have claimed over the last couple of years.

In the case of the church at Corinth it was common knowledge. Everyone saw that this sexual sin was being committed. It was like the man and women were posting it on their social media page for everyone to see. Even Paul who was is writing from Ephesus had gotten word about this sin. It was so obvious that the news has traveled.

Just as the sin was common knowledge, the Scriptures condemnation of it was commonly known.

Sexual sin has its own commandment. In other words it makes the top ten list of the Law!

Exodus 20:14 ESV

“You shall not commit adultery.

Jesus takes the commandment and expounds on it in

Matthew 5:27–28 ESV

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Paul addresses it over and over in this letter we are studying, but one of the clearest command regarding sexual sin is,

1 Thessalonians 4:3–5 ESV

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;

Paul tells the Thessalonians to:

This is the will of God,

to Abstain from sexuality,

Notice how he closes these verses, after he exhorts the Thessalonians to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.

He is saying be sanctified, abstain from sexual immorality, don’t act like the Gentiles do living out your passions as if you don’t even know God. You are to live as those being set apart from sin, set apart to God.

This makes the next statement to the Corinthians even more shocking. Because their sin is even more depraved than just your run of the mill pagan sexual sin.

We see next the Corinthians are ignoring,

B. The sin of incest.

Paul writes, the sexual immorality among you is a kind that is not even among the pagans. He told the Thessalonians don’t sin like the pagans, and he tells the Corinthians, you are sinning in a way that the pagans, the gentiles, the unbelieving world doesn’t even accept, they know it is vial and wicked.

for a man has his father’s wife.

Most commentators all agree, here Paul is referring to the man’s stepmother. We don’t have a lot of detail regarding the relationship, but what we do know is that it was illicit, unsavory, and sinful. This kind of union was condemned and forbidden even in Roman law, but also in God’s law.

Leviticus 18:18 ESV

And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive.

Leviticus 20:11 ESV

If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

Deuteronomy 22:30 ESV

“A man shall not take his father’s wife, so that he does not uncover his father’s nakedness.

There in lies the reason why Paul is so shocked not only about the sin the man is committing but the way the church is responding to this behavior that the lost world even sees as wickedness. The OT law condemned it as a sin worthy of death, but the Corinthian church was acting as if it wasn’t a big deal.

This is why Paul goes on to condemn not only the sexual immorality, the incest but also the church’s,

C. The sin of arrogance

Paul writes,

5:2a And you are arrogant!

Now as we walk through this letter, I want you to see this theme throughout the book.

1 Corinthians 1:31 ESV

so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 3:18 ESV

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.

1 Corinthians 4:6 ESV

I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.

1 Corinthians 4:18 ESV

Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.

Then again in 5:2a And you are arrogant. Do you see the sin was not just happening in the family where the incest was going on, there was sin among the church, the brethren, the family of God. There sin was the sin of pride, of arrogance, they were guilty of being puffed up!

Paul is rebuking them, saying you are arrogant and instead, you ought to mourn. Now let’s stop here for a time of contemplation and application.

How do we respond to sin in the church?

Do we ignore it?

Do we look down we stiffen our neck, and look down our self-righteous noses as if we never sin?

Do we go about gossiping about it in the name of asking people to pray about it?

Do we mourn and weep knowing our family has fallen into sin?

Do we go to the person and them alone to seek to affirm and call to repentance before we say a word to anyone else?

Evidently, the sin at Corinth had gone past the point of calling the man to repentance, because Paul goes straight to calling, the man committing sexual immorality to be removed from the church.

Paul first warns, do not be arrogant about sexual sin, his second exhortation is,

II. Do not let unrepentant sexual sin remain.

First Paul lays out the,

A. The Churches Response

He wants the church to know they have a responsibility, a duty to maintain the purity of the body, they are to ensure the membership is of those who are true believers. Men and women who are living lives trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ and being sanctified as they repent of sin and grow in holiness. This man, in chapter 5 must have refused the call to repent. Because Paul writes,

5:2b Ought you not rather mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

Paul say’s this man has got to be put out of the church. He is so violating the command of God that even those outside the church are appalled at his behavior. This man must be removed from the fellowship, put out of the membership, and it must be made known that as long as he refuses to repent and turn from his sin and to Christ he is not a brother.

John Calvin explains,

1 Corinthians: New Testament, Volume 9a 5:1–2 Incest and Arrogance

When Paul says, “should you not rather mourn,” he is arguing from contrasts, for when people are mourning, all their boasting ceases. Now someone might ask, “Why should they mourn someone else’s sin?” I answer that there are two reasons. First, because of the communion that exists among members of the church, it was proper that all the members should be wounded by such a deadly failing of the one. And, second, when a disgraceful act of this sort is perpetrated in a particular church, the guilt affects not only the author, but the entire assembly is polluted to a certain extent. For just as God humbles the head of a household when his wife or children act indecently, and the entire household is affected by the disgrace of one of its members, so every church should recognize that it is tainted by a disgraceful stain whenever any wicked crime is perpetrated in its midst.

We see here how the church was to respond to the sin. Notice secondly,

B. Paul’s Response

1 Corinthians 5:3 ESV

For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.

Paul say’s I am not even there right now. As much as I want to be. But, this sin is so destroying the testimony of the church and the purity of the body of Christ that I am going to provide you with my judgment. I am going to give you my decision.

I am connected with you spiritually, present in spirit and I am commanding you to put this man out of the church. You are acting arrogantly as if you have some freedom to allow sexual immorality to exist among you. You do not understand that you are freed from sexual immorality, not to sexual immorality. Therefore deliver this man to Satan.

C. Removing the Sinner for Restoration

In verses 4 and 5 Paul reminds the church at Corinth that his judgment was not his own invention. His pronouncement was not his own preconceived idea. Instead he is about to affirm he is just affirming Jesus command in Matthew 18.

First he reminds them when you,

1. Assemble in the name of the Lord Jesus

He wants them to know when they gather in the name of Christ, they need to be recognized as new creations in Christ. Not as some lawless band of arrogant, sexual deviants.

He goes on to remind them that when they gather in the name of Jesus they are filled with,

2. Power of our Lord Jesus

Is not this the promise of Jesus in

Matthew 18

English Standard Version Chapter 18

18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

Paul wanted the church to know that this was a big deal, this was a serious matter. When it comes to putting someone out of the church. The church must recognize whose they are, they/we are not our own. We belong to Christ and when we are gathered in His name we are representing Him! Therefore, when we being making judgments, pronouncements, binding and loosing, as we add and remove members of the body we need the wisdom and power of Jesus.

He promises us that when we are gathered in his name to protect the purity of His church we will be with us!

Why then are we to do this? Why are we to gather in his name, in his power, it is so that we might see the sinner restored in preparation for His Day!

3. Discipline in view of the day of the Lord Jesus.

1 Corinthians 5:5 ESV

you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

Paul want the church to understand, this discipline was to be done to restore the man and woman to a right relationship to God and his church in preparation for the return of Christ. If they continued in their sin and refused to repent there is coming a day when the Lord will return and judge the living and the dead.

For those who have recognized their sin, humbled themselves, and turned to the Lord in faith it will be a day of comfort, a day of rejoicing, a day of celebration.

For those who reject the gospel, remain in their sin, and refuse to recieved the mercy and grace of God through Christ this day will be a day of punishment, a day of pain, and a day of everlasting wrath.

Therefore Paul writes, turn this man out, give him over to Satan, let him run head long into sin without the protection of the church. Let his flesh be destroyed, so that he might realize the destruction this sin is taking on him and run back to Christ in repentance and faith and be restored to his people.

1 Corinthians: New Testament, Volume 9a 5:3–5 The Punishment of the Offender

DISCIPLINE IS INDISPENSABLE FOR A HEALTHY CHURCH. JOHN CALVIN: But because some persons, in their hatred of discipline, recoil from its very nature, let them understand this: if no society, indeed, no house that has even a small family can be kept in proper condition without discipline, it is much more necessary in the church, whose condition should be as ordered as possible. Accordingly, as the saving doctrine of Christ is the soul of the church, so does discipline serve as its sinews, through which the members of the body hold together, each in its own place. Therefore all who desire to remove discipline or to hinder its restoration—whether they do this deliberately or out of ignorance—are surely contributing to the ultimate dissolution of the church. For what will happen if each is allowed to do what they please? Yet that would happen, if to the preaching of doctrine there were not added private admonitions, corrections, and other aids of the sort that sustain doctrine and do not let it remain idle. Therefore discipline is like a bridle to restrain and tame those who rage against the doctrine of Christ; or like a spur to arouse those of little inclination; and also sometimes like a father’s rod to chastise mildly and with the gentleness of Christ’s Spirit those who have more seriously lapsed.… Now this is the sole remedy that Christ has enjoined and the one that has always been used among the godly

After Paul calls the church to discipline the sinning church member, he goes to exhort them,

III. Do not associate with immoral people.

First he reminds them,

A. Boasting is bad.

Paul again points to the arrogance of the church at Corinth. He is not just railing against the sexually immoral couple. He is calling the church out for the way they are allowing this sin to stain the purity of the church.

The pagans on the outside are looking at the people of God and mocking their sinful malignancy. Paul says and you are walking around stiff-necked about this sinful behavior. You are boasting as if you have a license to sin. You refuse to put these folks out of the church. Your boasting is not good!

Then he calls them to,

B. Cleanse out the old leaven.

Paul now turns to an analogy that they would have been very familiar with. The analogy of leaven.

1 Corinthians 5:6–8 ESV

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Due to time sake we won’t be able to break down the analogy. But here is the point, just like a little bit of leaven will affect, influence, leaven the whole lump of dough, a little bit of sin will affect, influence and taint the local church.

You can have the greatest pastors, most gifted worship team, choir, most pristine campus, and a stellar mission program, but if you let sin remain in your church and refuse to remove unrepentant sin your church will be known and rightly so as rotten, hypocritical, and full of unregenerate membership.

All of these things are warned of throughout the Scriptures. See the letters to the churches in Revelation for further confirmation.

Finally Paul calls the church at Corinth to,

C. Separate from the sexually immoral.

Sometimes in Scripture the authors just make things crystal clear. That is exactly what Paul does here, in his final verses of chapter 5.

1 Corinthians 5:9 ESV

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—

Paul says, you want to know why I wrote this letter. So that you would understand that you are not to associate with, have fellowship with, members of the body of Christ who are unrepentant, who continue to commit sexual immorality right in front of you. Get them out of the church, for the name of Christ, by the power of Christ, to save them on the day of Christ.

He goes on, I want you to understand,

1 Corinthians 5:10 ESV

not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.

Paul knows we are going to have to associate with those who are immoral in the world. He said that is okay. You have got to go to work, to school, to the grocery store, so you are going to have to associate with unsaved sinners.

1 Corinthians 5:11 ESV

But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.

I am writing to you about those who show up every Lord’s day with a smile on their face, acting as if they love Jesus, who died to save them from the sins they refuse to run from. He says I am not just talking about sexual immorality either. I want you to not associate with brothers or sisters who are

Greedy, Idolatrous, Revilers, Drunkards, Swindlers.

Don’t even eat with these folks. And when you get called judgmental remember we are to judge those inside the church, but we are not to judge those outside, God will handle that! That is not our place. We are to go out into the world, witness to them reminding them,

That God has created us, that He is a Holy, just, and wrathful God who will punish the unrepentant.

But God is also a loving, merciful, and gracious God who sent his own Son, Jesus Christ into the world to save sinners, to live the sinless life that we could not live and die the sacrificial death we could not die. He was hung on the cross, crucified for sinners like you and I. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God. He was then buried in a borrowed tomb, and three days later raise from the dead, proving he was the Son of Man and Son of God. He defeated, death, hell, and the grave so that all who would repent and believe in Him would be saved from the penalty we owed for our sexual immorality, idolatry, greed, drunkeness, and swindling!

Therefore we are to not be arrogant about sin in the church,

We are to remove sinning members from the fellowship of the church.

And finally we are to,

Separate from sinning members, and be sent out into the world with the gospel so that God’s elect might be called to repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ!