1 Corinthians 5-6 · Featured Study
Discipline and Lawsuits
Corinth was tolerating a sin the surrounding pagans would have blushed at, and taking brothers to court before unbelieving judges. Paul answers both failures with one principle: the church is a family that judges its own, purges its own leaven, and settles its own disputes, because its members are washed, sanctified, justified, and bought with a price. This page walks chapters 5 and 6 in order, from the hard sentence of 5:5 to the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Summary
Corinth tolerated an incest case and was proud of itself while it did, and its members were suing one another before pagan courts. Paul answers both in 1 Corinthians 5-6: the church judges those within and leaves those without to God, and it lives as a people washed, sanctified, justified, and bought with a price.
- The hardest sentence in the letter carries a saving aim: “that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (5:5)
- Christ our Passover has been sacrificed; the old leaven goes out so the feast can be kept (5:7-8)
- The church judges its own; God judges them that are without (5:12-13)
- The saints shall judge the world and angels, so small disputes belong inside the family, and taking wrong beats winning before unbelievers (6:1-8)
- “And such were some of you”: the warning list ends in the gospel, washed, sanctified, justified (6:9-11), and the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (6:19-20)
The Case Corinth Tolerated
5:1-5: a public sin, a proud church, and the hardest sentence in the letter
“It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles, that one of you hath his father’s wife.” 1 Corinthians 5:1
“And ye are puffed up, and did not rather mourn, that he that had done this deed might be taken away from among you.” 1 Corinthians 5:2
A man in the church had taken his father’s wife, and the whole city knew it. The report reached Paul across the sea. The sharpest edge of the passage falls on the congregation rather than the man: they were “puffed up,” proud of their broad-mindedness, where the right response was grief. Paul had already judged the case, and he tells the gathered church what the sentence is.
It was told in all places, to their dishonour, and the reproach of Christians. And it was the more reproachful because it could not be denied. Note, The heinous sins of professed Christians are quickly noted and noised abroad.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Presbyterian
1 Cor 5:1
Note, It is a very wicked thing to glory over the miscarriages and sins of others. We should lay them to heart, and mourn for them, not be puffed up with them.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Presbyterian
1 Cor 5:2
1 Corinthians 5:5 (ASV)
“to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” 1 Corinthians 5:5
The sentence sounds like abandonment and reads, on its own terms, as rescue. The verse carries its purpose inside itself: the destruction of the flesh serves the salvation of the spirit. Whatever else the phrase means, church discipline here aims at the day of the Lord Jesus, with the man standing saved in it.
Delivered unto Satan: the readings, with their holders5:5
The church has read this hard phrase three main ways, and each reading has serious holders. This page names them and stamps no verdict.
Unto Satan - Beza, and the Latin fathers, suppose that this is only an expression of excommunication. They say, that in the Scriptures there are but two kingdoms recognized - the kingdom of God, or the church, and the kingdom of the world, which is regarded as under the control of Satan; and that to exclude a man from one is to subject him to the dominion of the other.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832-1869Presbyterian
1 Cor 5:5
To deliver such an one - This was the highest degree of punishment in the Christian church; and we may observe, the passing this sentence was the act of the apostle, not of the Corinthians. To Satan - Who was usually permitted, in such cases, to inflict pain or sickness on the offender.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, 1755Evangelical
1 Cor 5:5
Christ and Satan divide the world: and those that live in sin, when they profess relation to Christ, belong to another master, and by excommunication should be delivered up to him; and this in the name of Christ.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Presbyterian
1 Cor 5:5
Scripture itself records how this story ends. In his next letter Paul tells the same church that the punishment has done its work, and that the man is now to be forgiven and comforted, “lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his overmuch sorrow” (2 Corinthians 2:7). The discipline of chapter 5 and the restoration of 2 Corinthians 2 are one account, and reading them together is the surest guard against reading either one alone. Read the sequel at 2 Corinthians 2.
The Leaven and the Feast
5:6-8: Christ our Passover, and a church kept unleavened
“Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?” 1 Corinthians 5:6
“Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, even as ye are unleavened. For our passover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ: wherefore 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.” 1 Corinthians 5:7-8
Paul reaches for the Passover. Before that feast, every Jewish household searched the house and put out every trace of leaven (Exodus 12:15). The church is that house. The lamb has already been sacrificed, and the sacrifice is Christ; what remains is the search, the putting out of the old leaven, and the feast itself, kept with sincerity and truth. Discipline in this picture belongs to worship. A church purges leaven for the same reason Israel did, because the Passover has come.
Your glorying - Either in your gifts or prosperity, at such a time as this, is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven - One sin, or one sinner. Leaveneth the whole lump - Diffuses guilt and infection through the whole congregation.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, 1755Evangelical
1 Cor 5:6
The Greek for "malice" means the evil habit of mind; "wickedness," the outcoming of the same in word and deed. The Greek for "sincerity" expresses literally, a thing which, when examined by the sun's light, is found pure and unadulterated.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
1 Cor 5:8
Therefore let us keep the feast - Let us feed on him by faith. Here is a plain allusion to the Lord's supper, which was instituted in the room of the passover.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, 1755Evangelical
1 Cor 5:8
Unleavened Bread
The feast behind Paul’s picture: seven days with no leaven in the house, joined to Passover from Exodus 12 onward.
Unleavened Bread, the full study →The Lord’s Supper
The feast the church keeps now, instituted at a Passover table; Wesley hears it directly behind “let us keep the feast.”
The Lord’s Supper, the full study →Them That Are Within
5:9-13: the boundary of the church's judgment
Paul had written before, telling the church to keep no company with fornicators, and Corinth had taken him to mean the fornicators of the world at large. He corrects the reading: to avoid every sinner outside the church, “then must ye needs go out of the world” (5:10). The command concerns a man “that is named a brother” who lives in open sin (5:11). The boundary line is drawn in two questions and an answer.
“For what have I to do with judging them that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Put away the wicked man from among yourselves.” 1 Corinthians 5:12-13
There is less danger in associating with open worldlings than with carnal professors.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
1 Cor 5:11
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.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832-1869Presbyterian
1 Cor 5:13
The letter before this letter5:9
Verse 9 says “I wrote unto you in my epistle,” which raises a real historical question: which epistle? Two positions are held. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown hold that Paul names an earlier letter that has not survived; Barnes records the state of the question and leaves it undetermined. Nothing of doctrine turns on the answer, and this page stamps no verdict.
I wrote . . . in an epistle--rather, "in the Epistle": a former one not now extant.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871
1 Cor 5:9
There has been considerable diversity of opinion in regard to this expression.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832-1869
1 Cor 5:9
Brother Against Brother
6:1-8: lawsuits before unbelievers, and the saints who shall judge the world
“Dare any of you, having a matter against his neighbor, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?” 1 Corinthians 6:1
“Or know ye not that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world is judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more, things that pertain to this life?” 1 Corinthians 6:2-3
The argument runs from the future to the present. Believers will one day sit with Christ in the judgment of the world, and of angels (Matthew 19:28; Revelation 20:4). A people with that destiny can surely settle a property dispute among themselves. Paul’s grief is double: that brothers had disputes at all, and that they carried them before judges who did not know the Lord, where the gospel itself became a spectacle.
“Nay, already it is altogether a defect in you, that ye have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather take wrong? why not rather be defrauded?” 1 Corinthians 6:7
Dare any of you This is the first statement -- that, if any one has a controversy with a brother, it ought to be decided before godly judges, and that it ought not to be before those that are ungodly. If the reason is asked, I have already said, that it is because disgrace is brought upon the gospel, and the name of Christ is held up as it were to the scoffings of the ungodly.
John Calvin· Commentaries, 1554Reformed
1 Cor 6:1
Dare--This word implies treason against Christian brotherhood [BENGEL].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
1 Cor 6:1
Indeed there is a fault, that ye quarrel with each other at all, whether ye go to law or no. Why do ye not rather suffer wrong - All men cannot or will not receive this saying. Many aim only at this, "I will neither do wrong, nor suffer it." These are honest heathens, but no Christians.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, 1755Evangelical
1 Cor 6:7
In matters of great damage to ourselves or families, we may use lawful means to right ourselves. We are not bound to sit down and suffer the injury tamely, without stirring for our own relief; but, in matters of small consequence, it is better to put up with the wrong. Christians should be of a forgiving temper.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Presbyterian
1 Cor 6:7
Wesley presses the saying at full strength, and Henry marks its working range: serious injury may be lawfully redressed, while small matters are better absorbed. The two readings stand together here, as counsel from two honored teachers on one hard command.
And Such Were Some of You
6:9-11: the warning list, and the gospel note that closes it
“Or know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-10
The list is sobering and Paul means it to be. It reaches the unjust and the greedy as surely as the sexually immoral; the covetous and the reviler stand in the same sentence as the idolater. Then comes the turn, and it is the reason this page carries the passage as good news.
1 Corinthians 6:11 (ASV)
“And such were some of you: but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:11
“Were” is the whole gospel in a tense. Members of the Corinthian church had lived inside that list, and now stand washed, sanctified, and justified, by the name of the Lord Jesus and the Spirit of God. The verse holds the church’s two truths in one breath: sin excludes from the kingdom, and grace has already brought exactly such sinners in.
THE Gospel is as holy as the Law. The Gospel is full of mercy to sinners, but it shows no mercy to sin. The Gospel speaks most tenderly to the ungodly, but it speaks most sternly to ungodliness. There is a great difference made, in the New Testament, between the sinner and the sin. And while the sinner is, in Infinite mercy, spared, encouraged to hope, and wooed by almighty love, sin is denounced as a dreadful thing, an abominable thing which God hates and must punish.
Charles Spurgeon· The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2661: "A Marvelous Change", 1900Particular (Reformed) Baptist
1 Cor 6:9
(1) The exceeding grace of God that could recover even such persons from sins so debasing and degrading. (2) It shows that we are not to despair of reclaiming the most abandoned and wretched people. (3) It is well for Christians to look back on what they once were.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832-1869Presbyterian
1 Cor 6:11
And such were some of you: but ye are washed - From those gross abominations; nay, and ye are inwardly sanctified; not before, but in consequence of, your being justified in the name - That is, by the merits, of the Lord Jesus, through which your sins are forgiven. And by the Spirit of our God - By whom ye are thus washed and sanctified.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, 1755Evangelical
1 Cor 6:11
Bought with a Price
6:12-20: liberty, the body, and the temple of the Holy Spirit
“All things are lawful for me; but not all things are expedient. All things are lawful for me; but I will not be brought under the power of any.” 1 Corinthians 6:12
Corinth had turned a slogan of Christian liberty into a license for the body. Paul answers with two tests that govern the rest of the letter: does it profit, and does it enslave. Then he gives the body its true theology. The body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body (6:13); God raised the Lord and will raise us (6:14); our bodies are members of Christ (6:15); fornication joins what belongs to Christ to a harlot, and sins against a man’s own body (6:16-18). The passage climbs to its summit in two verses.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (ASV)
“Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
The temple in Corinth was a place everyone could picture; Paul says the believer’s own body is now that place, indwelt by the Holy Spirit himself. The purchase language completes it: a price has been paid, the blood of Christ, and ownership has changed hands. Both chapters of this study rest on that fact. The church disciplines because its members are the Lord’s; the believer honors God in the body for the same reason.
All things - Which are lawful for you. Are lawful for me, but all things are not always expedient - Particularly when anything would offend my weak brother; or when it would enslave my own soul.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, 1755Evangelical
1 Cor 6:12
And even your body is not, strictly speaking, your own even this is the temple of the Holy Ghost - Dedicated to him, and inhabited by him. What the apostle calls elsewhere "the temple of God," chap. iii, 16, 17, and "the temple of the living God," 2 Cor. vi, 16, he here styles the temple of the Holy Ghost; plainly showing that the Holy Ghost is the living God.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, 1755Evangelical
1 Cor 6:19
Ye are bought with a price - As the slave who is purchased by his master for a sum of money is the sole property of that master, so ye, being bought with the price of the blood of Christ, are not your own, you are his property.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Methodist
1 Cor 6:20
Glorify God with your body, and your spirit - Yield your bodies and all their members, as well as your souls and all their faculties, as instruments of righteousness to God. Devote and employ all ye have, and all ye are, entirely, unreservedly, and forever, to his glory.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, 1755Evangelical
1 Cor 6:20
The Voices
with the work named
Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710) · public domain
Carries the pastoral line through both chapters: mourn rather than glory, forgive small wrongs, and keep the body for the Lord who raised it.
Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755) · public domain
Reads 5:5 as apostolic sentence with a permitted affliction behind it, and closes 6:20 with the whole-life charge: devote all ye have and all ye are.
Commentaries (1554) · public domain
Names the ground of 6:1 plainly: lawsuits before the ungodly bring disgrace on the gospel and hold the name of Christ up to scoffing.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) · public domain
Carries Bengel's line that "dare" implies treason against Christian brotherhood, and holds that 5:9 names a former epistle not now extant.
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869) · public domain
Reports the readings of 5:5 with their holders, and draws the 5:13 boundary: the church judges its own; all others are left in the hands of God.
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2661, "A Marvelous Change" (1900) · public domain
Preaches 6:9-11 whole: the Gospel is as holy as the Law, full of mercy to sinners and no mercy to sin.
Commentary on the Bible (1832) · public domain
Reads "bought with a price" through the slave market: purchased by the blood of Christ, the believer is his property.
Marcus Brown's own commentary leads above all; within a tier, all voices are equal. No modern (living-copyright) roster voice appears in the site's quote pool for these two chapters; the relevance gate is honored by carrying none rather than reaching for one.
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