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1 Corinthians 5

Paul confronts the church’s tolerance of grave wrongdoing and grounds its duty to pursue holiness in Christ’s sacrifice.

Paul addresses a report that a man in the Corinthian church has his father’s wife, while the congregation responds with arrogance rather than grief. Though absent, Paul directs the gathered church to remove the man from its fellowship under the authority of Jesus. He uses yeast and Passover imagery to explain the stakes for the whole congregation, then clarifies the difference between dealing with wrongdoing among professing believers and judging people outside the church.

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1It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father’s wife.
2You are arrogant, and didn’t mourn instead, that he who had done this deed might be removed from among you.
3For I most certainly, as being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has done this thing.
4In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together with my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
5you are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
6Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump?
7Purge out the old yeast, that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place.
8Therefore let’s keep the feast, not with old yeast, neither with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9I wrote to you in my letter to have no company with sexual sinners;
10yet not at all meaning with the sexual sinners of this world, or with the covetous and extortionists, or with idolaters, for then you would have to leave the world.
11But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortionist. Don’t even eat with such a person.
12For what do I have to do with also judging those who are outside? Don’t you judge those who are within?
13But those who are outside, God judges. “Put away the wicked man from among yourselves.”
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Key verses
1 Corinthians 5:4The gathered church must act under Jesus Christ’s authority, with Paul directing its response despite his absence.
1 Corinthians 5:7Christ’s Passover sacrifice grounds both the church’s identity as unleavened and its obligation to remove the old yeast.
1 Corinthians 5:6The yeast image explains why the congregation’s boasting and tolerance place the whole fellowship at risk.
Where this chapter reaches

Deuteronomy supplies the removal formula Paul quotes at the close, while Galatians shares the image of a little yeast affecting the whole lump. Matthew also connects the gathered community and Jesus’ authority with the work of addressing wrongdoing among its members.

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How does Paul’s description of Christ as the Passover sacrifice shape his call for sincerity and truth?

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What questions does Paul’s distinction between those inside and outside the church raise for you?

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Questions people ask about 1 Corinthians 5

What does “his father’s wife” mean in 1 Corinthians 5?

Paul describes a man having a sexual relationship with his father’s wife, generally understood to mean his stepmother. The text does not say whether the father is alive or whether the woman belongs to the church. Paul directs his disciplinary command toward the man and rebukes the congregation’s arrogance.

What does it mean to deliver someone to Satan in 1 Corinthians 5:5?

In context, the command involves removing the man from the church’s fellowship. Paul describes a severe consequence aimed at his eventual salvation. The phrase “destruction of the flesh” is debated: it may refer to bodily suffering or the breaking of sinful desires. The text does not specify the mechanism.

Does 1 Corinthians 5 say Christians should avoid all immoral people?

Paul distinguishes people outside the church from those who claim to be fellow believers. Avoiding every immoral person would require leaving the world. His restriction concerns fellowship, including shared meals, with a professing believer characterized by the wrongdoing he lists. Judgment of outsiders belongs to God.

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1 Corinthians · 16 chapters
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).