I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother. You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship. Even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit. And as though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church. I will be present with you in spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus. Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns.
1 Corinthians 5:1-5
Paul addresses something happening in the Church in Corinth that should not be. There were reportedly things going on in the Corinthian church that had come to Paul’s attention. No doubt through Chloe and her group, but no doubt others too. But it gets worse. He says three things that escalate in terms of the shock factor.
- I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you.
- Something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother.
- You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame.
Remember this from Bible Gem 304: Commentators usually assume that Corinth was an especially licentious city, a reputation it seems to have had in ancient times. Indeed, one of the Greek verbs for fornicate was korinthiazomai a word derived from the city’s name. Apparently this estimation was based on Strabo’s report of 1,000 sacred prostitutes in the temple of Aphrodite on the Acro Corinth, an 1886-foot hill that rises above the city to the south.
The surroundings of the Corinthian church appears to have influenced their thoughts to the point of their condoning the worst of sin without a thought to the implications. A man in the church was in a sexual relationship with his stepmother. Not only that but the Corinthian church were aware of it and for some strange reason which Paul doesn’t elaborate on actually were proud of the fact that this is going on. They haven’t denied the report. The report appears to be true but even worse than that the Corinthian church have no problems with it but rather are proud. This shows the degree of the depravity to which they have sunk. But these same people are showing forth their spirituality. They hold themselves up to be paragons of virtue and think of themselves highly in spiritual things. That is shocking.
If you woke up breathing, congratulations! You have another chance!
Anon
The wages of sin is death. Repent before payday.
Anon