The heinous sins of professed Christians are quickly noted and noised abroad to the injury of Christ’s cause. Let the believer walk circumspectly, for many eyes are upon him, and if he will not do so let the Church have no fellowship with him.
I Corinthians 5
1 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.
2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
3 For 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,
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
5 To 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.
6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
7 Purge 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:
8 Therefore 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.
9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
10 Yet 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.
11 But 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.
12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
I Corinthians 5:1 – J. Vernon McGee
I Corinthians 5:2 – J. Vernon McGee
I Corinthians 5:3-5 – J. Vernon McGee
I Corinthians 5:6-8 – J. Vernon McGee
I Corinthians 5:9-11 – J. Vernon McGee
I Corinthians 5:12-13 – J. Vernon McGee
1 Corinthians 5:1-13 – Removing Germs of Evil
The sin referred to in this chapter has been condoned by the Corinthian church, and this proved that the prevalent standard of morals was low. A man had married his father’s second wife—his father having probably died. Such an alliance could not be tolerated. A condemnation of the sin must be pronounced by the whole body of believers, acting in concert with the Holy Spirit resident among them. “It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us” (Acts 15:28).
Paul compares the Corinthian church to the Children of Israel, who, after sprinkling the blood, kept the feast of joy within closed doors—a careful search having been made for any atom of leaven that had hitherto escaped scrutiny. So we should put away from our lives, homes, and churches everything that would offend the gracious Paraclete. Since Christ has been slain for us, we must daily feed on Him with festal joy. Our loins must be girded as becomes those about to depart at a moment’s notice. We must be ever on the alert to detect the summons for an exodus out of this dark Egyptian world into the world that is to come. —Through the Bible Day by Day
I Corinthians 5:7-8—Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast.
At the time of the first Passover, outside, as the ominous midnight hour approached, Egypt gave herself up to her usual life. “They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage” (Luke 17:27). But within their homes, the children of Israel stood around their tables, their loins girt, their staves in their hands, with unleavened bread packed up with their kneading-troughs in their clothes, waiting for the signal to depart. The Passover Lamb had been sacrificed; its blood was on the door; its flesh, roast with fire, was being eaten. For seven days, all leavened bread had been put away out of the houses of the chosen people, because leaven, in the Bible, is the symbol of the working of the corrupt principle.
The believer should look back.—The Paschal Lamb was sacrificed for us on the cross. Though He has done no sin, and was without blemish, yet He was slain for us without the gates of the city. He made there a sufficient sacrifice, satisfaction, oblation, for the sins of the whole world.
The believer should look around.—With lighted candle, search the heart of your house, that there may be no speck or mote of leaven. Let us keep the perpetual feast of the Christian life, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
The believer should look on.—Soon we shall hear the midnight trumpet sound, “Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest” (Micah 2:10) and we shall go forth from Egypt, where we have suffered, and toiled, and been misunderstood; where also our Lord was crucified. It is but a little while (how little, how little!) and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. —Our Daily Homily