Add parallel Print Page Options

Don’t Let Your People Live in Sin

I don’t want to believe what I am hearing—that there is sexual sin among you. And it is such a bad kind of sexual sin that even those who have never known God don’t allow it. People say that a man there has his father’s wife. And still you are proud of yourselves! You should have been filled with sadness. And the man who committed that sin should be put out of your group. I cannot be there with you in person, but I am with you in spirit. And I have already judged the man who did this. I judged him the same as I would if I were really there. Come together in the name of our Lord Jesus. I will be with you in spirit, and you will have the power of our Lord Jesus with you. Then turn this man over to Satan. His sinful self[a] has to be destroyed so that his spirit will be saved on the day when the Lord comes again.

Your proud talk is not good. You know the saying, “Just a little yeast makes the whole batch of dough rise.” Take out all the old yeast, so that you will be a new batch of dough. You really are bread without yeast—Passover bread.[b] Yes, Christ our Passover Lamb[c] has already been killed. So let us eat our Passover meal, but not with the bread that has the old yeast, the yeast of sin and wrongdoing. But let us eat the bread that has no yeast. This is the bread of goodness and truth.

I wrote to you in my letter that you should not associate with people who sin sexually. 10 But I did not mean the people of this world. You would have to leave the world to get away from all the people who sin sexually, or who are greedy and cheat each other, or who worship idols. 11 I meant you must not associate with people who claim to be believers but continue to live in sin. Don’t even eat with a brother or sister who sins sexually, is greedy, worships idols, abuses others with insults, gets drunk, or cheats people.

12-13 It is not my business to judge those who are not part of the group of believers. God will judge them, but you must judge those who are part of your group. The Scriptures say, “Make the evil person leave your group.”[d]

Footnotes

  1. 1 Corinthians 5:5 sinful self Or “body.” Literally, “flesh.”
  2. 1 Corinthians 5:7 Passover bread The special bread without yeast that the Jews ate at their Passover meal. Paul means that believers are free from sin, just as the Passover bread was free from yeast.
  3. 1 Corinthians 5:7 Passover Lamb Jesus was a sacrifice for his people, like a lamb killed for the Jewish Passover Feast.
  4. 1 Corinthians 5:12 Quote from Deut. 22:21, 24.

Dealing With a Case of Incest

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife.(A) And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning(B) and have put out of your fellowship(C) the man who has been doing this? For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit.(D) As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus(E) on the one who has been doing this. So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over(F) to Satan(G) for the destruction of the flesh,[a][b] so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.(H)

Your boasting is not good.(I) Don’t you know that a little yeast(J) leavens the whole batch of dough?(K) Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.(L) Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread(M) of sincerity and truth.

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate(N) with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world(O) who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister[c](P) but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater(Q) or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.(R)

12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside(S) the church? Are you not to judge those inside?(T) 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”[d](U)

Footnotes

  1. 1 Corinthians 5:5 In contexts like this, the Greek word for flesh (sarx) refers to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit.
  2. 1 Corinthians 5:5 Or of his body
  3. 1 Corinthians 5:11 The Greek word for brother or sister (adelphos) refers here to a believer, whether man or woman, as part of God’s family; also in 8:11, 13.
  4. 1 Corinthians 5:13 Deut. 13:5; 17:7; 19:19; 21:21; 22:21,24; 24:7