1 Corinthians 5 – 6

The Need for Church Discipline and Personal Sanctification

1 Corinthians 5

¹ It is actually ^[1] reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and it is a kind of sexual immorality that not even the Gentiles practice: A man has his father’s wife! ² Yet you are proud! Shouldn’t you have been filled with sorrow so that the man who did this deed would be removed from among you? ³ Even though I am absent in body, I am present in spirit, and as one who is present, I have already decided about the man who has done such a thing. ⁴ In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, and my spirit is there, along with the power of our Lord Jesus, ^{[2] 5} hand such a man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord Jesus. ^[3]

⁶ Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? ⁷ Purge out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, just as you are unleavened. For our Passover lamb has been sacrificed, namely, Christ! ⁸ So let us keep celebrating the festival, not with old yeast, not with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

⁹ When I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with the sexually immoral, ¹⁰ I did not at all mean the sexually immoral people of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, for then you would have to leave the world. ¹¹ But in this situation, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother if he is sexually immoral, or greedy, or an idolater, or verbally abusive, or a drunkard, or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person. ¹² For what business is it of mine to judge people outside the church? Do you not judge those inside? ¹³ God will judge the people outside the church. “Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.” ^[4]

Lawsuits and Unrighteous Behavior

1 Corinthians 6

¹ If any one of you has a case against another, does he dare to seek judgment before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? ² Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you not competent to deal with insignificant lawsuits? ³ Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the matters of this life! ⁴ So if you have lawsuits involving matters of this life, do you appoint those people as your judges whom the church considers of no account? ⁵ I say this to make you feel ashamed. Is it really the case that there is not one wise man among you who would be able to decide a dispute between his brothers? ⁶ Instead, brother sues brother, and that in front of unbelievers! ⁷ The fact that you have lawsuits with one another is already a complete failure on your part. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? ⁸ Instead, you yourselves do the wronging and defrauding, and you do it to your brothers!

⁹ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor males who have sex with males, ^{[5] 10} nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor the verbally abusive, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And some of you were those types of people. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ ^[6] and by the Spirit of our God.

Flee From Sexual Immorality!

¹² “All things are permitted for me”—but not all things are beneficial. “All things are permitted for me”—but I will not allow anything to control me. ¹³ “Foods are for the belly, and the belly is for foods, but God will do away with both of them.” However, the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. ¹⁴ God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. ¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then remove the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Certainly not! ¹⁶ Or ^[7] do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body with her? For it says, “The two will become one flesh.” ^{[8] 17} But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.

¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. ¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, ²⁰ for you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.