1 Corinthians 5:1-8·~1 min

Immorality Rebuked

Paul says it is actually reported that a man among them is living with his father's wife, in a way intolerable even among pagans, and that the church has remained proud instead of grieving and removing him. Though absent in body, Paul says he has already judged the matter and directs the gathered church, acting in the Lord Jesus' power, to hand the man over to Satan so that his flesh may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the Day of the Lord.

I¹t is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is intolerable even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife. ²And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been stricken with grief and have removed from your fellowship the man who did this? ³Although I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, and I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. ⁴When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, along with the power of the Lord Jesus, ⁵hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord.

Paul says their boasting is not good, because a little leaven works through the whole batch. He tells them to clear out the old leaven and live as the unleavened people they are, because Christ their Passover has been sacrificed, so their common life should be marked by sincerity and truth rather than malice and wickedness.

⁶Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven works through the whole batch of dough? ⁷Get rid of the old leaven, that you may be a new unleavened batch, as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. ⁸Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old bread, leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and of truth.

Section summaryPaul confronts the church over a form of sexual immorality so grave that even the surrounding pagan world would recoil from it, and he is disturbed not only by the act but by the Corinthians' pride. He directs them to remove the man in the Lord's name, then uses the image of leaven and Passover to show that holiness must be guarded within the whole community.

Role in the chapterThis section turns rebuke into discipline. It names both the sin and the church's failure to respond rightly, then frames removal as part of the church's responsibility before Christ.