If you are leading a group you must be careful, sensitive and understanding as you approach this study.
We saw in our first study that Corinth was a bustling, commercially successful, maritime city. But like many large cities it was a centre of immorality. One of its twelve temples was dedicated to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Of course, to some, that would mean sex.
It probably wasn’t helped by the number of sailors, waiting there for their ship to sail. Corinth was so well known for sexual immorality that a Greek verb ‘to Corinthianise’ was used for this behaviour.
The Romans had captured the city in 146bc, killing or driving out many of the Greek inhabitants. In 44bc Julius Caesar re-established Corinth as a Roman colony and it was a favourite place for army veterans to live. The population was mixed; with Romans, Greeks — and also Jews, whose numbers had been swelled by those forced out of Rome (Acts 18:2). There were also many other nationalities drawn there by trade, and there were very many slaves.
Jews living in Corinth had their own synagogue and ‘religious’ Jews would have understood the biblical requirements for holiness. But for others, and the Greek converts, who had grown up in that culture, when they were converted they still had a lot of customs and behaviour to unlearn.
First look at 1 Corinthians 6:9-10
9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
then verse 11a ‘and that is what some of you were ’. The problem was that although they had now been washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (verse 11b) their background had led to many of the on-going problems in their church.
Do those problems still occur to some extent in churches today – where the law of the land (UK) allows for same-sex couples, even among those who are leaders?
Now read 1 Corinthians 5:1-11
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: a man is sleeping with his father’s wife. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this?
3 For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. 4 So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5 hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch – as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people – 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
Now we are going to have to work backwards. Look at verses 9 and 10.
Paul has to make sure they understood that that what he is saying only applies to those within the church. Not the whole world!!
So bearing that in mind, he says in verse 11:
11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
It appears that Paul is having to correct a wrong attitude that existed in the church in Corinth, where they believed that by allowing fellow Christians to continue in open sin they were showing love to them – even boasting in their tolerance of these things.
Could this be a problem today with Freedom of Expression, Equality, Human Rights, etc?
Now back to 1 Corinthians 5:6-8
6 Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast— as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
What do we make of verse 6?
Yeast is used in the bible as a metaphor for Sin. What is yeast? It is a fungus that breaks down sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. It multiplies quickly and affects everything it comes in contact with.
For the Passover feast, the house had to be scoured from top to bottom to ensure that all yeast had been removed. The symbolism was that where sin is discovered, it must be removed completely.
Paul started this letter (1 Corinthians 1:2) reminding the Corinthians that they were sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy
What exactly does being sanctified and being holy mean?
To sanctify means to make holy – to separate from the world and consecrate to God. For a Christian that starts when we are ‘born again’. (2 Corinthians 3:18; 1 Corinthians 6:11)
To be holy is to continue to live our lives in ways that mirror that of Jesus, rather than conforming to the ways of the world. (1 Thessalonians 4:7; 1 Peter 1:13-25)
Here in Chapter 5 Paul has to tackle the problem of our attitude towards sin. Not just sin in the world, but obvious sin within the church; and not only our attitude towards it, but how we should deal with the sinner. I say obvious sin, because we have to accept that we are all sinners and are quite capable of committing sins ourselves, and we are skilled at hiding our sins from others.
Firstly our response to what will follow may well be ‘That’s a bit harsh’. But that merely shows us how our attitude towards sin has become lax. Things which we actually find acceptable today would not stand up to the standard of holiness required by Jesus. And for the early church there could be no compromise.
Now we can look at verses 1-5
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father's wife.
2 And you are proud! Shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?
3 Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present.
4 When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present,
5 hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.
(v1) For Paul to have heard about this it must have been common knowledge in (and probably outside) the church. It could not be allowed to continue, and it therefore had to be dealt with. The church themselves had failed to act (v2), so now Paul gave instructions: 4 So when you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present,
5 hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.
Would someone like to explain verse 5?
Does that mean illness or even death?
Actually, yes — but we'll work up to it:
First look at v3:
3 Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present.
We learnt in our last study that generally we are not to judge others but we must also accept that there are times, among Christians, within the church, for the Glory of God, that it will be necessary; and we will be expected to pass judgement on other Christians too. In these cases we have to be careful that at all times we are led by the Spirit of Christ.
This is difficult, and our passage is difficult too! Let’s look at it carefully – tell me what you understand by:
4 So when you are assembled . . .
It was not something for the church leaders to deal with quietly. Yes the leaders would have to act, but the congregation must witness the results of sin. And the whole church must share in the responsibility of dealing with Church Discipline.
and I am with you in spirit . . .
Paul would share responsibility for this with the Church.
and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, . . .
This was not to be a simple matter of expelling the man from the congregation: it would require the miraculous power of Jesus for what was to come, and until the church recognised the presence of Jesus they would be powerless to act.
5 hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.
Paul has been confronted with an intolerable situation in the young church that he had planted. Verse 9 tells us that this is not the first time Paul had written to the church on this subject, but by now conspicuous sin had somehow become acceptable, and having been allowed a foothold, Satan would surely destroy this young church, and possibly others.
Luke 17:1-3a Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied round his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. So watch yourselves."
For the sake of the church and ultimately the Glory of God, sin had to be dealt with. Paul had not only been given the authority by God, as an apostle, but now also by the Holy Spirit he had been given the power to act.
What does verse 5 say? hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.
What does he mean by that? (Not simply that he should be expelled from the church – we will look at that in our next study)
Ultimately the person to be punished is a Christian and so will never finally be lost from God’s Kingdom. Satan’s power only extends as far as the grave. Jesus demonstrated this at Calvary.
But sickness and death are things that Satan can and does use. Remember Job 2:4-7 The LORD said to Satan, Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life. (Peter: Luke 22:31, Paul: 2 Corinthians 12:7)
And there would be occasions when he is given permission to punish sinful Christians.
Are there any other instances where we read in the New Testament of such things?
Yes, I can think of four:
1) Later on in this letter where Paul states that unconfessed sin could result in sickness and death:
Read 1 Corinthians 11:27-32
2) In Acts we have a record of Peter taking immediate action in the face of deliberate sin in the church:
Read Acts 5:1-11 (Ananias and Sapphira)
3) Also in acts we have a record of Paul confronting evil:
Read Acts 13:8-12 (Elymas the sorcerer)
4) and in Paul’s letter to Timothy:
1 Tim 1:19-20 Some have shipwrecked their faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.
So it seems that Paul had a power which went beyond that of the other church leaders and which apparently is not available today. Of course the church was able to expel members from their gathering (as any modern-day church can) but here Paul delegated his apostolic authority to the church leaders. They had been given a particular ability to hand a person over to Satan, specifically to inflict disease or death in punishment for sin. Quite a terrifying prospect for us today, but vital for the early church if it was to stamp out sin before its casual acceptance destroyed them all.
We will leave this study here, and continue looking at the whole question of sin in the church in the next study.
