Bible Commentaries

Not so much as named; except with abhorrence, as a rare crime. Members of the church who, in opposition to their profession and to all the light which they enjoy, live in sin, are sometimes suffered to commit crimes which are viewed with abhorrence even by heathen.

Puffed up; by their supposed excellence.

But present in spirit; present with you in spirit, judging and acting as though I were present with you in body.

In the name; by the authority.

Any my spirit; acting with you as if I were present.

The power of our Lord; to sanction and give effect to their proceedings.

Deliver such a one unto Satan; exclude him from the visible kingdom of Christ, not to destroy him, but to bring him to repentance and thus save him.

For the destruction of the flesh; many think that these words imply the infliction, along with the exclusion from the church, of some bodily evil through the miraculous power conferred by Christ on the apostle, which should cooperate with the exclusion to lead him to repentance. There are but two kingdoms on earth, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. All who do not belong to the one, belong to the other.

Your glorying; in their supposed attainments.

A little leaven; one such wicked person suffered to remain would corrupt others and injure the whole.

Purge out-the old leaven; the apostle alludes to the Jewish custom of carefully putting away from their houses all leaven upon the approach of the feast of the passover. Leaven is in the Scriptures a common emblem for moral corruption. The old leaven which he exhorted them to put away was the remainder of their former wickedness, as seen in this incestuous person.

A new lump; fresh and unleavened; that is, pure from corruption.

As ye are unleavened; profess and are under peculiar obligations to be holy.

Christ our passover; the ground or reason why we are passed over, as the first-born of the Israelites were, Exodus 12:23, and not destroyed, is the death of Christ. As the Israelites were to put away all leaven before partaking of the paschal lamb, Exodus 12:15, which was the type of Christ, so the Corinthians were to put away all sin, that they might spiritually feed on Christ, the great antitype.

Keep the feast; the spiritual passover provided for us in the gospel.

In an epistle; generally supposed to refer to an epistle not handed down to us. As the apostle delivered many inspired discourses which it did not please the Holy Ghost to have recorded, so he may have written letters which the wisdom of God did not judge needful to make the sacred volume complete.

Not altogether; he did not command them wholly to abstain from intercourse with worldly men, for that would require them to retire from the world. It is not the will of God that good men should retire from the world to avoid its evils; nor is that the way to become more holy, useful, or happy. Their duty is to communicate with the wicked, for the purpose of doing them good; and to labor in the world till God shall call them out of it.

For what have I to do; these words give the reason for the limitation expressed in verse 1 Corinthians 5:10; as much as to say, In regard to the fornicators of this world, I propose no strict rule of absolute separation from them; they may be left to God’s judgment.

That are without; who do not belong to the church.

Within; in the church.

If members of the church continue in immorality, their good, the good of the church, and the honor of Christ require that they should be excluded from it.