11 But now I have written to you, if any one called brother be fornicator, or avaricious, or idolater, or abusive, or a drunkard, or rapacious, not to mix with [him]; with such a one not even to eat.
It is universally reported [that there is] fornication among you, and such fornication as [is] not even among the nations, so that one should have his father's wife. And *ye* are puffed up, and ye have not rather mourned, in order that he that has done this deed might be taken away out of the midst of you. For *I*, [as] absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged as present, [to deliver,] in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (ye and my spirit being gathered together, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ), him that has so wrought this: to deliver him, [I say,] [being] such, to Satan for destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your boasting [is] not good. Do ye not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, according as ye are unleavened. For also our passover, Christ, has been sacrificed; so that let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with leaven of malice and wickedness, but with unleavened [bread] of sincerity and truth. I have written to you in the epistle not to mix with fornicators; not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the avaricious and rapacious, or idolaters, since [then] ye should go out of the world.
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strifes, jealousies, angers, contentions, disputes, schools of opinion, envyings, murders, drunkennesses, revels, and things like these; as to which I tell you beforehand, even as I also have said before, that they who do such things shall not inherit God's kingdom.
For from within, out of the heart of men, go forth evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickednesses, deceit, licentiousness, a wicked eye, injurious language, haughtiness, folly; all these wicked things go forth from within and defile the man.
for they that sleep sleep by night, and they that drink drink by night; but *we* being of [the] day, let us be sober, putting on [the] breastplate of faith and love, and as helmet [the] hope of salvation;
Neither be ye idolaters, as some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.
And he said to them, Take heed and keep yourselves from all covetousness, for [it is] not because a man is in abundance [that] his life is in his possessions. And he spoke a parable to them, saying, The land of a certain rich man brought forth abundantly. And he reasoned within himself saying, What shall I do? for I have not [a place] where I shall lay up my fruits. And he said, This will I do: I will take away my granaries and build greater, and there I will lay up all my produce and my good things; and I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much good things laid by for many years; repose thyself, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, Fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; and whose shall be what thou hast prepared? Thus is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. And he said to his disciples, For this cause I say unto you, Be not careful for life, what ye shall eat, nor for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than food, and the body than raiment. Consider the ravens, that they sow not nor reap; which have neither storehouse nor granary; and God feeds them. How much better are *ye* than the birds? But which of you by being careful can add to his stature one cubit? If therefore ye cannot [do] even what is least, why are ye careful about the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I say unto you, Not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed as one of these. But if God thus clothe the grass, which to-day is in the field and to-morrow is cast into [the] oven, how much rather you, O ye of little faith? And *ye*, seek not what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, and be not in anxiety; for all these things do the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that ye have need of these things; but seek his kingdom, and [all] these things shall be added to you.
and begin to beat his fellow-bondmen, and eat and drink with the drunken; the lord of that bondman shall come in a day when he does not expect it, and in an hour he knows not of, and shall cut him in two and appoint his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant into thy mouth, Seeing thou hast hated correction and hast cast my words behind thee? When thou sawest a thief, thou didst take pleasure in him, and thy portion was with adulterers; Thou lettest thy mouth loose to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit; Thou sittest [and] speakest against thy brother, thou revilest thine own mother's son: These [things] hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether as thyself: [but] I will reprove thee, and set [them] in order before thine eyes.
But if that bondman should say in his heart, My lord delays to come, and begin to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and to drink and to be drunken, the lord of that bondman shall come in a day when he does not expect it, and in an hour he knows not of, and shall cut him in two and appoint his portion with the unbelievers.
See Israel according to flesh: are not they who eat the sacrifices in communion with the altar? What then do I say? that what is sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? But that what [the nations] sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, and not to God. Now I do not wish you to be in communion with demons. Ye cannot drink [the] Lord's cup, and [the] cup of demons: ye cannot partake of [the] Lord's table, and of [the] table of demons. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?
For I fear lest perhaps coming I find you not such as I wish, and that *I* be found by you such as ye do not wish: lest [there might be] strifes, jealousies, angers, contentions, evil speakings, whisperings, puffings up, disturbances; lest my God should humble me as to you when I come again, and that I shall grieve over many of those who have sinned before, and have not repented as to the uncleanness and fornication and licentiousness which they have practised.
For this is [the] will of God, [even] your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honour, (not in passionate desire, even as the nations who know not God,) not overstepping the rights of and wronging his brother in the matter, because the Lord [is] the avenger of all these things, even as we also told you before, and have fully testified. For God has not called us to uncleanness, but in sanctification. He therefore that [in this] disregards [his brother], disregards, not man, but God, who has given also his Holy Spirit to you.
But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and many unwise and hurtful lusts, which plunge men into destruction and ruin. For the love of money is [the] root of every evil; which some having aspired after, have wandered from the faith, and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
having eyes full of adultery, and that cease not from sin, alluring unestablished souls; having a heart practised in covetousness, children of curse; having left [the] straight way they have gone astray, having followed in the path of Balaam [the son] of Bosor, who loved [the] reward of unrighteousness;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 1 Corinthians 5
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 5 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 5
In this chapter the apostle,
1Cr 5:1-6
Here the apostle states the case; and,
1Cr 5:7-8
Here the apostle exhorts them to purity, by purging out the old leaven. In this observe,
1Cr 5:9-13
Here the apostle advises them to shun the company and converse of scandalous professors. Consider,