One of the best-known passages regarding distancing oneself is found in 1 Corinthians 5. This very chapter is often cited as a basis for church discipline. Therefore, it is important to read carefully what Paul actually writes here.
An exceptional situation
Paul begins his argument by describing a serious situation.
1 Corinthians 5 ISA
1 In short, it is reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and a kind of immorality not even found among the nations—namely, that a man has his father’s wife.
The word “immorality” is rendered as “fornication” or “sexual immorality” in most translations (Greek: porneia). This refers to sexual intercourse with someone other than one’s own husband or wife.
This is not a matter of a mere slip-up or a sin into which someone has stumbled. Paul speaks of someone having a relationship with his father’s wife, likely his stepmother. Even among the pagans, such a relationship was considered unacceptable.
puffed up
It is noteworthy that Paul does not direct his rebuke at the man, but at the ecclesia. He does not even mention the man by name. His focus is not on the individual, but on the situation and, above all, on the attitude of the ecclesia.
2 And you are puffed up? Should you not rather mourn, so that the one who has done this deed might be removed from your midst?
The Corinthians were not saddened by what was happening; instead, they were puffed up. We encountered the word “puffed up” earlier in the letter. Paul used it to describe their pride and their tendency to exalt themselves above one another (1 Cor. 4:6, 18–19). The right attitude is lacking here, too. Apparently, they even viewed their tolerance as something to be proud of. That is why Paul says: “your boasting is not good” (verse 6).
false teaching
They were puffed up like leaven, and that has everything to do with false teaching that had taken hold among them (1 Cor. 5:6–7). They were not standing in the truth, and that was the cause of their wrong attitude.
performing this deed
Paul goes on to speak of “the one who is performing this deed.” That is an important detail. The Greek word implies committing or practicing something. Thus, Paul is not speaking of someone who has fallen due to weakness, but of someone who persists in this practice. He makes that same distinction elsewhere. In Galatians 6, he speaks specifically of someone overtaken by a transgression who needs to be restored in a spirit of gentleness. Here, the situation is different.
from your midst
Paul says: “so that the one who is performing this deed may be removed from your midst.” Common translations render this in various ways:
…to remove from your midst (NBG)|
…to put away from your midst (HSV)
…be put away from your midst (SV)
It is striking that Paul uses a passive verb form here. The Statenvertaling (SV) preserves that grammatical form, whereas the NBG and HSV phrase it in a way that reads more easily as a command to the ecclesia. The emphasis, therefore, is not on what the Corinthians ought to do, but on the fact that this man should be removed from their midst. Because of the Corinthians’ attitude, this man was able to remain in their midst undisturbed.
Paul does not call upon the Corinthians to strike the man’s name from the membership roll; such a thing did not even exist. Nor does he call for the man to be removed from their midst. He addresses the Corinthians regarding their attitude. If they were to mourn and grieve over the situation, instead of maintaining their attitude of misplaced pride, then this man would naturally be removed from their midst: so that the one who has done this deed might be removed from among you. In a healthy body, unhealthy elements are purged naturally.
purging
When the ecclesia is healthy, such a situation cannot persist. Someone practicing such an excessive lifestyle will ultimately either no longer feel at home there or come to repentance. It is precisely Paul’s teaching that would cleanse the ecclesia, not through an organizational measure, but because the truth does its work (compare Ephesians 5:25–26).
In the next blog post, we will reflect on his words:
“We hand such a person over to Satan.”