Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 5:13
But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
But them … – They who are unconnected with the church are under the direct and special government of God. They are indeed sinners, and they deserve punishment for their crimes. But it is not ours to pronounce sentence upon them, or to inflict punishment. God will do that. our province is in regard to the church. We are to judge these; and these alone. All others we are to leave entirely in the hands of God.
Therefore – Greek And ( kai). Since it is yours to judge the members of your own society, do you exercise discipline on the offender and put him away?
Put away from among yourselves – Excommunicate him; expel him from your society. This is the utmost power which the church has; and this act the church is bound to exercise upon all those who have openly offended against the laws of Jesus Christ.
Remarks On 1 Corinthians 5
1. A public rumor with regard to the existence of an offence in the church should lead to discipline. This is due to the church itself that it may be pure and uninjured; to the cause, that religion may not suffer by the offence; and to the individual, that he may have justice done him, and his character vindicated if he is unjustly accused; or that if guilty he may be reclaimed and reformed – Offences should not be allowed to grow until they become scandalous; but when they do, every consideration demands that the matter should be investigated; 1Co 5:1.
2. People are often filled with pride when they have least occasion for it; 1Co 5:2. This is the case with individuals – who are often elated when their hearts are full of sin – when they are indulging in iniquity; and it is true of churches also, that they are most proud when the reins of discipline are relaxed, and their members are cold in the service of God, or when they are even living so as to bring scandal and disgrace on the gospel.
3. We see in what way the Christian church should proceed in administering discipline; 1Co 5:2. It should not be with harshness, bitterness, revenge, or persecution. It should be with mourning that there is necessity for it; with tenderness toward the offender; with deep grief that the cause of religion has been injured; and with such grief at the existence of the offence as to lead them to prompt and decided measures to remove it.
4. The exercise of discipline belongs to the church itself; 1Co 5:4. The church at Corinth was to be assembled with reference to this offence, and was to remove the offender. Even Paul, an apostle, and the spiritual father of the church, did not claim the authority to remove an offender except through the church. The church was to take up the case; to act on it; to pass the sentence; to excommunicate the man. There could scarcely be a stronger proof that the power of discipline is in the church, and is not to be exercised by any independent individual, or body of people, foreign to the church, or claiming an independent right of discipline. If Paul would not presume to exercise such discipline independently of the church, assuredly no minister, and no body of ministers have any such right now. Either by themselves in a collective congregational capacity, or through their representatives in a body of elders, or in a committee appointed by them; every church is itself originate and execute all the acts of Christian discipline over its members. (See the supplementary note on 1Co 5:4.)
5. We see the object of Christian discipline; 1Co 5:5. It is not revenge, hatred, malice, or the more exercise of power that is to lead to it; it is the good of the individual that is to be pursued and sought. While the church endeavors to remain pure, its aim and object should be mainly to correct and reform the offender, that his spirit may be saved. When discipline is undertaken from any other motive than this; when it is pursued from private pique or rivalship, or ambition, or the love of power; when it seeks to overthrow the influence or standing of another, it is wrong. The salvation of the offender and the glory of God should prompt to all the measures which should be taken in the case.
6. We see the danger of indulging in any sin – both in reference to ourselves as individuals, or to the church; 1Co 5:6. The smallest sin indulged in will spread pollution through the whole body, as a little leaven will effect the largest mass.
7. Christians should be pure; 1Co 5:7-8. Their Saviour – their paschal lamb, was pure; and he died that they might be pure. He gave himself that his people might be holy; and by all the purity of his character; by all the labors and self-denials of his life; by all his sufferings and groans in our behalf, are we called on to be holy.
8. We are here presented with directions in regard to our contact with those who are not members of the church; 1Co 5:10. There is nothing that is more difficult to be understood than the duty of Christians respecting such contact. Christians often feel that they are in danger from it, and they are disposed to withdraw almost entirely from the world. And they ask with deep solicitude often, what course they are to pursue? Where shall the line be drawn? How far shall they go? And where shall they deem the contact with the world unlawful or dangerous? – A few remarks here as rules may aid us in answering these questions.
(I) Christians are not wholly to withdraw from contact with the people of this world. This was the error of the monastic system, and this error has been the occasion of innumerable corruptions and abominations in the papal church – They are not to do this because:
- It is impossible. They must needs then, says Paul, go out of the world.
- Because religion is not to be regarded as dissocial, and gloomy, and unkind.
- Because they have many interests in common with those who are unconnected with the church, and they are not to abandon them. The interests of justice, and liberty, and science, and morals, and public improvements, and education, are all interests in which they share in common with others.
- Many of their best friends – a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, may be outside of the church, and religion does not sever those ties, but binds them more tenderly and closely.
- Christians are inevitably connected in commercial dealings with those who are not members of the church; and to cease to have any connection with them would be to destroy their own business, and to throw themselves out of employment and to break up society.
- It would prevent the possibility of doing much good either to the bodies or the souls of people. The poor, the needy, and the afflicted are, many of them, out of the church, and they have a claim on the friends of Christ, and on their active beneficence.
- It would break up and destroy the church altogether. Its numbers are to be increased and replenished from age to age by the efforts of Christians; and this demands that Christians should have some contact with the people of the world whom they hope to benefit.
- An effort to withdraw wholly from the world injures religion. It conveys the impression that religion is morose, severe, misanthropic; and all such impressions do immense injury to the cause of God and truth.
(II) The principles on which Christians should regulate their contact with the world, are these:
- They are not to be conformed to the world; they are not to do any thing that shall countenance the views, feelings, principles of the world as such, or as distinguished from religion. They are not to do anything that would show that they approve of the special fashions, amusements, opinions of the people of the world; or to leave the impression that they belong to the world.
- They are to do justice and righteousness to every man, whatever may be his rank, character, or views. They are not to do anything that will be calculated to give an unfavorable view of the religion which they profess to the people of the world.
- They are to discharge with fidelity all the duties of a father, husband, son, brother, friend, benefactor, or recipient of favors, toward those who are out of the church; or with whom they may be connected.
- They are to do good to all people – to the poor, the afflicted, the needy, the widow, the fatherless.
- They are to endeavor so to live and act – so to converse, and so to form their plans as to promote the salvation of all others. They are to seek their spiritual welfare; and to endeavor by example, and by conversation; by exhortation and by all the means in their power to bring them to the knowledge of Christ. For this purpose they are kept on the earth instead of being retrieved to heaven; and to this object they should devote their lives.
9. We see from this chapter who are not to be regarded as Christians, whatever may be their professions; 1Co 5:11. A person who is:
(1)A fornicator: or,
(2)Covetous; or,
(3)An idolater; or,
(4)A railer; or,
(5)A drunkard; or,
(6)An extortioner, is not to be owned as a Christian brother.
Paul has placed the covetous man, and the railer, and extortioners, in most undesirable company. They are ranked with fornicators and drunkards. And yet how many such persons there are in the Christian church – and many, too, who would regard it as a special insult to be ranked with a drunkard or an adulterer. But in the eye of God both are alike unfit for his kingdom, and are to be regarded as having no claims to the character of Christians.
10. God will judge the world, 1Co 5:12-13. The world that is outside the congregation – the mass of people that make no profession of piety, must give an account to God. They are traveling to His bar; and judgment in regard to them is taken into Gods own hands, and He will pronounce their doom. It is a solemn thing to be judged by a holy God; and they who have no evidence that they are Christians, should tremble at the prospect of being soon arraigned at His bar.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
But them that are without God judgeth; for heathens that live brutish and scandalous lives, God will judge them; the church hath nothing to do with them, they never gave up themselves to them, and are only under the justice of God in the administrations of his providence.
Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person: do you, therefore, what belongs to you to do. This incestuous person, besides his subjection to Gods judgment, who is the Judge of all, whether within or without the church, is subjected also to your judicature; therefore use that power which God hath given you, and put away from amongst you that evil person. The conclusion of this discourse helps us clearly to understand those former precepts, Purge out the old leaven, 1Co 5:7, and: Let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, 1Co 5:8; that they are not so properly to be interpreted of particular Christians purging out their lusts and corruptions, (though that be every good Christians duty), as of every Christian churchs duty to purge themselves of flagitious and scandalous persons.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. put away from among yourselvesthat wickedSentence of excommunication in language taken fromDe 24:7.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But them that are without God judgeth,…. Or “will judge”, in the great day of judgment; wherefore though such persons did not fall under the censures and punishment of the apostle, nor of a church of Christ, yet they shall not go unpunished; God will call them to an account for their fornication, covetousness, idolatry, extortion, c. and will judge, condemn, and punish them, according to their works and therefore since they do not fall under the cognizance of the churches of Christ, they are to be left to the tribunal of God; and all that the saints have to do is to watch over one another, and reprove, rebuke, and censure, as cases require, and as the case of this church did.
Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person; not that wicked thing, as some read it, but that wicked one; meaning not the devil, who is sometimes so called; a sense of the words proposed by Calvin, not asserted; but that wicked man, that, incestuous person, whom the apostle would have removed from among them, by excommunication; which was what became them as a church to do, and which lay in their power to do, and could only be done by them, and was to be their own pure act and deed: reference seems to be had to those passages in De 17:7 where the Septuagint render the phrase, , “thou shalt put away that wicked one among yourselves”.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Put away the wicked man ( ). By this quotation from De 17:7 Paul clinches the case for the expulsion of the offender (5:2). Note twice and effective aorist tense.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Wicked [] . Mischievous to the Church. See on Luk 3:19. The usage of the Septuagint emphasizes the idea of active harmfulness. The word has, however, in some passages, the sense of niggardly or grudging, and the Hebrew word which is usually translated by ponhrov mischievous, is sometimes rendered by baskanov malignant, with a distinct reference to the “evil” or “grudging eye.” This sense may go to explain Mt 20:15, and possibly Mt 6:19, and Mt 7:11.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
Comments
1) But them that are without God judgeth (tous de ekso ho theos krinei) but the ones without or outside the church fellowship living in forbidden moral ways, not members of the Lords church, God will judge, Rom 2:16; Rom 3:6; Heb 12:23.
2) Therefore put away from among yourselves (Greek eksarate eks humon arton) Remove ye, or lift up and put outside your fellowship, congregation, assembly or midst. This certifies the right of a church to exclude erring members; See also 2Th 3:6; Rom 16:17; Tit 3:10.
3) That wicked person. (Greek ton poneron) the wicked one, the young man who was habitually having illicit sexual carnal relations with his own stepmother, his fathers wife 1Co 5:1-2.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
13. Put away that wicked person. This is commonly explained as referring to the person who was guilty of an illicit connection with his mother-in-law. For as to those who understand the expression to mean — “Put away evil or wickedness, ” they are refuted by the Greek words made use of by Paul, the article ( τὸν) being in the masculine gender, But what if you should view it as referring to the devil, who, undoubtedly in the person of a wicked and unprincipled man, (309) is encouraged to establish his throne among us? For ὁ πονηρος (the wicked one) taken simply and without any addition, denotes the prince of all crimes, (310) rather than some wicked man. If this meaning is approved of, Paul shows how important it is (311) not to tolerate wicked persons, as by this means Satan is expelled from his kingdom which he keeps up among us, when indulgence is given to the wicked. (312) If any one, however, prefers to understand it as referring to a man, I do not oppose it. Chrysostom compares the rigor of the law with the mildness of the gospel, inasmuch as Paul was satisfied with excommunication in case of an offense for which the law required the punishment of death, but for this there is no just ground. For Paul is not here addressing judges that are armed with the sword, but an unarmed multitude (313) that was allowed merely to make use of brotherly correction.
(309) “ Quand on supporte un homme meschant et mal-vivant;” — “When a wicked and unprincipled man is allowed to continue.” — Ed.
(310) It is well observed by Witsius in his Dissertations on the Lord’s Prayer, (Biblical Cabinet, No. 24,) that the appellation of the evil One is properly applied to Satan, “because he does nothing but what is evil — because all the evil that exists in the universe originated with him — because in doing evil, and in persuading others to do evil, he finds his only delight, the wicked and malignant solace of his desperate misery.” — Ed.
(311) “ Combien il est utile et necessaire;” — “How useful it is and necessary.”
(312) “ Quand il y a vne license de malfaire, et les meschans sont soufferts;” — “When there is a license to do evil, and the wicked are tolerated.”
(313) “ Desnuee de puissance externe;” — “Destitute of external power.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(13) God judgeth.In the best MSS. the verb is in the future tense: God will judge. He is the judge of the whole earth; we are to leave the heathen world in His hands.
Therefore put away . . .Better omit therefore. The Apostle in this passage adopts the form of pronouncing sentence on great criminals, with which especially the Jewish converts would be familiar (Deu. 13:5; Deu. 17:7; Deu. 24:7).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. God judgeth Many pagan Corinthians may have been far more corrupt than this incestuous Church member. But they could not be expelled the Church, for they were already without its pale. Nor had the apostle any miraculous power to emaciate their bodies or blind their eyes. If he had possessed such power he would have also had a stupendous amount of penal work on his hands. Judgment enough was impending over them, from inflicting which the apostle was exempt by God’s own power.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Co 5:13 . But of those that are without God is judge , not I and not you. This statement appears more weighty and striking when taken as a sentence by itself, than as a continuation of the question (and still in dependence upon ; so Lachmann, Rckert, Olshausen, Hofmann). The accentuation although preferred by Luther, Grotius, Estius, Wetstein, Bengel, Valckenaer, al [850] , Lachmann, Scholz, Rckert, Olshausen, Tischendorf, Ewald, Hofmann (in accordance with Arm., Copt., Vulgate, Chrysostom, al [851] ) is to be rejected, because it is clear from the context, that so far from there being any necessity for the reference to the last judgment which would give occasion for the future (Rom 3:6 ; Rom 2:16 ), on the contrary the present (Erasmus, Castalio, Beza, Calvin, al [852] , Pott, de Wette) corresponds in much the most natural way to the preceding and . According to this view, then, the future judgment is neither exclusively pointed to by , nor is it thereby excluded; but the judgment of those who are non-Christians is described generally as a matter for God , whenever and however it may take place.
Paul has now ended his more definite explanation and correction as regards that misunderstood statement in his letter, 1Co 5:9 . But for the Corinthians what more direct inference could be drawn from this explanation, than the duty of expelling the offender already spoken of, whom they should indeed have excluded before (1Co 5:2 )? Hence the apostle adds, without further preface (note, too, the aorist ), the brief categorical command: . . [853] This injunction corresponds so exactly to the LXX. version of Deu 24:7 , that it must be set down as simply arbitrary to deny that the form of expression here was purposely selected from remembrance of that passage. , . Theodoret. Hofmann conjectures that Paul wrote , and that this meant: “ and no less will He ( God ) also take away the wicked one (those who are wicked in general) from the midst of you ;” but this is neither critically established since the Recept [854] is on critical grounds to be utterly rejected nor grammatically admissible, for the assumed use of is foreign both to Attic prose and to the N. T.; [855] nor, finally, is it in accordance with the context, for manifestly refers to the specific malefactor of 1Co 5:2 , and to his exclusion from the church; comp Augustine: “ , quod est hunc malignum.”
] is more expressive than the simple : out of your own midst , in which you have hitherto tolerated him. Bengel’s comment hits the mark: “antitheton externos .”
[850] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.
[851] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.
[852] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.
[853] . . . .
[854] ecepta Textus receptus, or lectio recepta (Elzevir).
[855] The apparent proof-passages from Greek writers are either founded on corrupt readings or are deprived of their force when correctly explained. See especially Bornemann, ad Anab. i. 8. 3; Khner, ad Memor. iv. 2. 28; Hartung, Partikell . I. p. 113 ff.; also Krger on Thuc. i. 9. 3. The atque etiam would have been rendered by . With respect to the occurrence of and , without a corresponding after it, in Homer, Herodotus, etc., see Ngelsbach on the Iliad , p. 176 f., Exo 3 ; and on the whole subject, comp. Matthiae, 626, p. 1504 f.
REMARK.
Paul has ended what he had to say against the party-divisions in chap. 4. That the evils censured in chap. 5 (and 6) had any connection in point of principle with the party-divisions, is a view which finds no trace of support in the apostle’s way of speaking of them. Hence, too, it is impossible to prove that the persons at whom Paul’s censures were levelled belonged to any one special party, and if so, to which. In particular, we must refrain from attempting to refer the in question, and its odious manifestation, to one definite party, and to the principles held by it, whether to the Pauline section (Neander), or the Christ-party (Olshausen, Jaeger, Kniewel), or the Apollonians (Rbiger). This much only may be regarded as certain, that the misuse of Christian freedom, so far as that in principle lay at the root of the mischief (1Co 6:12 ), cannot be charged upon the Petrine party.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
REFLECTIONS
SEE, my soul! what corruptions the human heart is exposed to, and how the peace and prosperity of Church-communion, is liable to be interrupted by the improper indulgence of fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. Oh! for grace to keep the heart with all diligence! Lord, do thou keep thy Church, thy people, with thy watchful care, for without thee we are nothing!
Blessed be God the Holy Ghost for this short but sweet portion in this Chapter, which calls upon us to behold Christ, our Passover, sacrificed for us; and to know our Lord in this most precious, and blessed office-character. Yes! thou dearest Jesus! methinks I would eye thee with unceasing delight, as the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. Thou wert, indeed, and art still, and ever will be, a lamb of the first year without blemish, and without spot. Thou wert taken out, as the Jewish lamb was; from among the flock, the One, the holy individual One chosen by God from among the people; holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. Lord! give me grace to keep the feast on this, thy one, thine all-sufficient sacrifice, to thy praise and my unceasing comfort, during the whole of my time-state here below, until thou shalt bring me home to the marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven. Let there be no leaven found in my heart or house. Oh! for the Lord so to prepare me for this and every other holy ordinance, that I may make Christ my whole and sole Passover. Let me so paschatize and keep the feast upon my Lord’s sacrifice, that both in doctrine, and in life, and conversation, Christ may be all, and in all. Jesus will preside at his own table, who both makes the feast, and is the feast, my New Testament altar, sacrifice, and sacrificer. And I shall sit down at his table with great delight here below; and ere long, at his table above, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the heirs with the whole Church of the same promise!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
Ver. 13. Therefore put away ] Gr. , Ye will put away, q.d. I hope ye will, though hitherto ye have not. Soft words and hard arguments do soonest prevail, especially when we reprove or admonish not in our own, but in God’s words, as here the apostle doth out of Deu 13:1-5 . Some warmth must be in a reproof, but it must not be scalding hot. Aegros, quos potus fortis non curavit, ad salutem pristinam aqua tepens revocavit, saith Gregory. They that could not be cured with strong potions, have been recovered with warm water. Gentle showers, and dews that distil leisurely, do comfort the earth, when dashing storms drown the seed.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
13. ] But those who are without GOD judgeth. The pres. both expresses better the attribute and office of God, and answers better to the other presents than the future . I have therefore retained it. The future perhaps came from Heb 13:4 . ‘To judge those without, is God’s matter .’ These remarks about judging form a transition point to the subject of the next chapter. But having now finished his explanation of the prohibition formerly given, and with it the subject of the fornicator among them, he gives, before passing on, a plain command in terms for the excommunication (but no more: not the punishment mentioned in 1Co 5:3-5 ) of the offender. And this he does in the very words of Deu 24:7 (from which the reading has come).
is in Deut., but need not therefore lose its emphatic force: from among your own selves .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
God. App-98.
Therefore. The texts omit. The injunction is more forcible without it.
put away. Greek. exairo, as in 1Co 5:2.
from among. App-104.
that, &c. = the wicked (one). App-128. With this chapter should be compared the Lord’s words in Mat 18:15-17, and Paul’s injunctions in 2Th 3:6-15. The aim in every case was to bring the offender to repentance. Note also that this was a moral offence, and no sanction is given by these injunctions to the separation so common now on the ground of differing interpretations of Scripture statements.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
13.] But those who are without GOD judgeth. The pres. both expresses better the attribute and office of God, and answers better to the other presents than the future . I have therefore retained it. The future perhaps came from Heb 13:4. To judge those without, is Gods matter. These remarks about judging form a transition point to the subject of the next chapter. But having now finished his explanation of the prohibition formerly given, and with it the subject of the fornicator among them, he gives, before passing on, a plain command in terms for the excommunication (but no more: not the punishment mentioned in 1Co 5:3-5) of the offender. And this he does in the very words of Deu 24:7 (from which the reading has come).
is in Deut., but need not therefore lose its emphatic force: from among your own selves.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Co 5:13. , them that are without) The knowledge concerning the destruction or salvation of the Gentiles is a matter reserved for God alone.-, shall judge) Rom 2:16. Supply, and this judgment we in all humility leave to God. Thus the and, that follows, more closely coheres with this clause.-, and) an Epiphonema[45] suited to both parts of this chapter. The particle with the whole sentence is quoted here, from the LXX., Deu 17:7; Deu 19:19; Deu 24:7, , and so. But the phrase, as it is written, is not prefixed here, and this is the case either for the sake of severity [c. 1Co 4:21], or because , Heb. , is used by Moses for taking away a wicked man from among the people by capital punishment, by the apostle for taking away a wicked man from the Church by excommunication.- , the wicked person) 1Co 5:2; 1Co 5:9.- , from among yourselves) So it is found in the LXX. often. The antithesis in this passage is, those that are without.
[45] An exclamation after a weighty demonstration or narration. Append.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Co 5:13
1Co 5:13
But them that are without God judgeth.-They were to leave those without to the judgment of God.
Put away the wicked man from among yourselves.-In pursuance of the truth set forth here, he commands them to put from them this wicked person, who had taken his own fathers wife. There was no choice left the church. It must do just what Paul under the guidance of the Spirit directed them to do. There was no voting, but obedience to plain directions in carrying out the case.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
God: Psa 50:6, Act 17:31, Rom 2:16, Heb 13:4, 2Pe 2:9
Therefore: 1Co 5:1, 1Co 5:5, 1Co 5:7, Deu 13:5, Deu 17:7, Deu 21:21, Deu 22:21, Deu 22:22, Deu 22:24, Ecc 9:18, Mat 18:17
Reciprocal: Lev 14:40 – take away Deu 22:30 – a man shall Ezr 10:8 – himself separated Est 7:6 – this wicked Pro 22:10 – General Mar 4:11 – them Joh 9:34 – cast him out 1Co 5:2 – might 1Co 5:11 – with 2Co 2:5 – any 2Co 7:11 – clearing Gal 5:12 – cut Col 4:5 – them 1Th 4:12 – them
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Co 5:13. Where-as them that are without God judgeththat is His sole prerogative, and to Him ye may well leave it.
Put away the wicked man from among yourselves. The marked abruptness with which the subject is thus dismissed well conveys the repulsiveness of the subject to the apostles feelings.
Note.(1) The grace of the Gospel, though it renews the whole character, neither eradicates constitutional tendencies nor interferes with their natural working. It subdues and regulates the passions; but where the members of a church have been drawn out of a community steeped in vice, and themselves habituated, up to the time of their conversion, to the sight and practice of it, they may be expectedafter the first warmth of their new life has begun to coolto have many a sore struggle with reactionary tendencies. Plague spots will then appear; and at times the whole renovation effected by the Gospel may seem ready, like a passing wave, to be swept away. In such circumstances, should self-complacency be indulged, and open iniquity quietly tolerated in the community, sharp dealing becomes indispensable to recovery, and will, as in the present case, be so ratified in heaven as to prove successful.
(2) What a view of the worlds morality is suggested by the statement that to get quite away from even its grosser forms one must needs go out of the world! And though this stamps condemnation on all cloistral seclusionas an attempt to escape from the evils incident to contact with the unholyit no less condemns the tainting of church fellowship which follows the tolerance of open sin, and voluntary association with it, on the part of Christians.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Vv. 13 justifies by a remark, and moreover by a Scriptural quotation, the distinction laid down in 1Co 5:12. There are two domains, each subject to a different jurisdiction: the Christian judges the Christian; the man of the world is judged by God. It is needless to say that this contrast is only relative. The unfaithful Christian is also judged by God (1Co 11:30-32); but he has at the same time to do with another judge, the Christian community to which he belongs; while the non-Christian can sin without being subjected to any judgment of the latter kind. It seems at the first glance as if this saying were in contradiction to that of our Lord: Judge not….Why seest thou the mote in thy brother’s eye? (Mat 7:1-3). But when Jesus speaks thus, the judgment which He would exclude is that of secret malevolence, which condemns precipitately, on simple presumptions, or putting a malignant construction on motives. St. Paul is equally averse to such judging, 1Co 13:7. The judgment he lays on the Christian as a duty is that of charity, which, in view of notorious facts, seeks the best means to bring a brother back to himself who is self-deceived as to his spiritual state, and to save him (1Co 5:5). The former of these judgments is accompanied with a haughty joy, the other is an act of self-humiliation and mourning (1Co 5:2). The first proposition of 1Co 5:13 might be made the continuation of the second question of 1Co 5:12 : Do not ye judge…and does not God judge? But the affirmative meaning seems simpler.
The verb might be a future (): God shall judge; the words would then refer to the last judgment. But, after the presents , , the verb is rather a present (), the present of the idea and competency: It is God who is their Judge.
The final proposition, containing a Scripture quotation, is usually separated from what immediately precedes, to form, as it were, a last peremptory order summing up the whole chapter. It is clear that in this sense the , and (before the imperative or the future ), is out of place. It is omitted therefore in the Alex. and Greco-Latin readings, which evidently proceed on this interpretation. But what is overlooked in adopting this sense is the close connection established by the last words: , from among yourselves, with what immediately precedes (1Co 5:12-13 a): Thou shalt take away the wicked, not from human society, as if thou hadst to judge also them that are without, but from the midst of thyself, from those that are within. Such then is the Scriptural justification of the distinction laid down by Paul, 1Co 5:10-13 a, between the judgment of those without and of those within. As Israel was bound to cut off the malefactor, not from heathen nations, but from its own midst, so with the Church. From this point of view we cannot but adopt the , and, of the T. R. and of the Byzantines, to which must be added the support of the Peschito, a support by no means to be despised, notwithstanding all that Westcott and Hort say: And finally, you remember the Bible rule…! This is the final proof.
The same reason which led to the suppression of the , and, no doubt led also to the change of the future , ye shall take away, into the aor. imperative , take away! Once this last word was held to be the summary of the chapter, it is evident the imperative alone was suitable. If, on the contrary, the explanation here proposed is the true one, the future ought to be preserved, as giving more literally the formula quoted; comp. Deu 17:7-12; Deu 22:21; Deu 24:7. It has been suspected that the reading , ye shall take away, was borrowed from these passages; but the text of the LXX. has in all these sentences the sing. , thou shalt take away. Why should the Byzantine copyists have transformed it into a plural?
The term take away, like that of judge (1Co 5:12), should be determined by what precedes. The means of execution, of which the apostle is thinking, can only be the two indicated by himself, that of mourning, 1Co 5:2, which appeals to the intervention of God (with or without the ), and that of the personal rupture, indicated 1Co 5:11, which plunges the sinner into isolation. Such are the weapons of Christian discipline, which correspond to Israelitish stoning; Paul knows no others, when once the first warnings have failed. The very act of delivering to Satan, which he does as an apostle, not without the co-operation of the Church, is not essentially different from the judgment which it should itself have carried out according to 1Co 5:2.
Rckert, who always takes a very close grip of questions, does not think that the term , the wicked, can possibly designate any other than the incestuous person. These last words would thus be the summary of chap. 5: Exclude that guilty one! But then, how explain the two passages, 1Co 5:6-13 a, which seem to deviate from the subject properly so called? The first, according to him, is intended to prove the necessity of the exclusion; the second, its possibility; then, lastly, would come the final order, as an abrupt conclusion. This is able, but inadmissible. The passage 1Co 5:6-8 has a wholly different meaning, as we have seen. The passage 1Co 5:9-13 is introduced, not by a logical connection, but by an accidental circumstance, the misunderstanding on the part of the Corinthians. The , the wicked, does not therefore refer in the least to the incestuous man personally, but, as in the precepts of Deuteronomy, to the whole category of the vicious who are within. Paul does not return to the case of the incestuous man, but continues to treat the general subject of discipline to which he had passed from 1Co 5:6.
Ecclesiastical Discipline.
Let us briefly study the few passages of the New Testament which bear on this subject.
Mat 5:22. Jesus here distinguishes three judicial stages: the judgment (), the Sanhedrim, and the Gehenna of fire. These phrases are borrowed from the Israelitish order of things, in which they denote the district tribunal, the superior court, and, finally, the immediate judgment of God. If we apply these terms to the new surroundings which are formed about Jesus, and regard the first as brotherly admonition, the second as that of the heads of the future community of which the little existing flock is the germ, the third as God’s judgment falling on the incorrigible sinner, we shall have a gradation of punishments corresponding, on the one hand, to the received Israelitish forms, and, on the other, to the passages of the New Testament, including that which we are explaining.
Mat 18:15-20. Here is the fullest passage. Jesus begins with admonition; there are three degrees of it: 1. personal,as it is a private offence which is in question, the offended man takes the initiative; then 2. it takes a graver character by the addition of two witnesses; 3. it is the whole assembly together which admonishes the culprit. In the second place, admonition is followed by judgment; the dealing of the Church having failed, the offended person and every member of the congregation regard the brother, now recognised to be guilty, as a heathen or publican, which, in Jewish language, signifies that they break off all personal connection with him. Finally, the Church does not yet abandon the guilty man; it prays that he may repent, or, if not, that God may punish him visibly. Two or three brethren are sufficient to carry out this appeal to God effectually. The last stage, final perdition, is not here mentioned by Jesus; but it had been indicated by Him in the saying Matthew 5.
2Th 3:6; 2Th 3:14-15. The first stage, that of warning, is here satisfied by the apostle’s own letters; comp. 1Th 4:11; 1Th 4:2 and 1Th 3:6-12. The second stage, that of judgment, begins at 1Th 5:14. It is the , the public declaration, probably a communication from the rulers of the flock regarding what has taken place, and the invitation to the congregation to break off private relations with the culprit, without however ceasing to love him, and to act accordingly by praying for him and seeking to bring him back. The apostle stops here, like Jesus, in the second passage of Matthew.
Rev 2:19-22. A false prophetess, whom the bishop has not checked, is to be punished by a disease sent by the Lord. This threat corresponds to the judgment whereby Paul gives over the incestuous person to Satan; and John’s position in delivering this message is not without analogy to Paul’s in our chapter. With this punishment coming directly from the Lord might be compared the punishment drawn down by profane communions, of which mention is made in chap. 11 of our Epistle. But we would not anticipate the explanation of the passage.
It is clear that the means of excommunication cannot be supported by any passage of the New Testament, but that the Church is not for all that defenceless against the scandals which arise within it. After admonitions, if they are useless, it has two arms: 1st. humiliation, with prayer to God to Acts , 2 nd. private rupture. The use of these means depends on individual believers, and may dispense with all decision by way of a numerical majority. And how much ought we to admire the Lord’s wisdom, who took care not to confide the exercise of discipline to such uncertain hands as those of the half plus one of the members of the Church. To be convinced of this, it is enough to cast our eyes on the use which the Church has made of excommunication. There is not on the earth at this hour a Christian who is not excommunicated: Protestants are so by the Roman Church; the Roman Church by the Greek Church, and vice versa; the Reformed by the Lutherans, who refuse to admit them to their Holy Supper; the Darbyites by one another. Is there not then enough here to cure the Church of the use of this means? The weapons of our warfare, says St. Paul, 2Co 10:4, are not carnal, but are powerful by God. It is certainly probable that the incestuous member of the Corinthian Church, visited with judgment from above, and abandoned for the time by all his brethren, did not present himself at the love-feast and the Holy Supper. And even at this hour it is hard to believe that a scandalous sinner, with whom the most of his brethren have broken, and for whom they besiege the throne of God, would have the audacity to present himself with them at the holy table; but if he chooses, he should have it in his power as Judas had. If the Church lives, the Lord will show that He also is living. Excommunication may have been a measure pedagogically useful at a time when the whole Church was under a system of legality. Now the Church has recovered consciousness of its spirituality; ought not its mode of discipline to follow this impulse, and return to the order of primitive spiritual discipline?
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
But them that are without God judgeth. [These facts showed that the apostle had referred to those within the church; the discipline of those without is exclusively in the hands of God.] Put away the wicked man from among yourselves. [A summary command as to him and other wicked men.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 13
That wicked person; viz., the person of whom he had been speaking in the former part of the chapter. What is said in 2 Corinthians 2:5-10 is generally considered as referring to this case; and, if so, it shows that the discipline here enjoined was successful in bringing the sinner to repentance and reformation.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Judging and disciplining unbelievers is the Lord’s work. Obviously this does not mean that Christians should remain aloof when justice needs maintaining in the world. God has delegated human government to people as His vice-regents (e.g., Gen 9:5-6). As human beings Christians should bear their fair share of the weight of responsibility in these matters. The point here is that the Corinthians and all Christians should exercise discipline in church life to an extent beyond what is our responsibility in civil life.
Paul did not explain the objective in view in church discipline in this passage. Elsewhere we learn that it is always the restoration of the offender to fellowship with God and His people (2Co 2:5-11). It is also the purity of the church. [Note: For general studies of church discipline, see J. Carl Laney, "The Biblical Practice of Church Discipline," Bibliotheca Sacra 143:572 (October-December 1986):353-64; and Ted G. Kitchens, "Perimeters of Corrective Church Discipline," Bibliotheca Sacra 148:590 (April-June 1991):201-13. On the subject of lawsuits against local churches and church leaders who practice church discipline, see Jay A. Quine, "Court Involvement in Church Discipline," Bibliotheca Sacra 149:593 (January-March 1992):60-73, and 594 (April-June 1992):223-36.]
Chapter 5 deals with the subject of immoral conduct by professing Christians. [Note: See also Timothy D. Howell, "The Church and the AIDS Crisis," Bibliotheca Sacra 149:593 (January-March 1992):74-82.] The first part (1Co 5:1-8) contains directions for dealing with a particular case of fornication that existed in the church. The Corinthian Christians were taking a much too permissive attitude toward sin, which reflects the impact of their culture on their church. The second part (1Co 5:9-13) clarifies our duty in all instances of immoral conduct inside and outside the church.