Article from the East Main Messenger, dated 7/27/2025.
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people – not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler – not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
1 Corinthians 5:9-13
The apostle must have previously written the Corinthians a letter which the Holy Spirit did not consider necessary to be part of the New Testament canon. In this letter he had told them to withdraw fellowship from fornicators, but they had apparently misunderstood him to mean that they were not to associate with anyone who unrepentantly sins, including non-Christians. This would be impossible to do since everyone sins (Rom. 3:23); to accomplish it they would have to leave the planet. So now Paul clarifies what he meant by directing them to withdraw fellowship and association only from their brothers and sisters in Christ who were proven to be caught up in unrepentant sin.
They were to “judge” those who are “inside the church” while leaving non-Christians for God to judge. Many believe Christ’s command to “judge not, that you be not judged” (Matt. 7:1) condemns all judging. Yet the context of Matthew 7 shows that the Lord was referring to hypocritical, unfair judging. Elsewhere Christ commanded us to “not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment” (John 7:24), thus showing that the Lord wants us to make judgments about others as long as they are not assumptions and are proven to be right judgments backed by the facts. This shows why Jesus while speaking of disfellowship first directed us to go privately to the brother who has sinned to correct him, then to correct him with others “that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses,” and then to have the whole church exhort him to repent (Matt. 18:15-17). It must be proven that actual unrepentant sin is taking place before any judgment is made against any Christian. In this case, such has been done and thus Paul wants the Corinthians to “judge” and “purge…from among (them)” their unrepentant brother.
Paul lists not only the “sexual immorality” of this brother as a reason for disfellowship, but also other sins such as greed, fraud, idolatry, gossip, and drinking alcohol (1 Cor. 5:11-12). One should not view this list of sins as the only sins worthy of church discipline since Scripture elsewhere directs Christians to “avoid” those who unrepentantly commit many other sins as well (Rom. 16:17-18; 2 Tim. 3:1-5; Tit. 3:9-11; 2 John 9-11). In his letter to the Thessalonians, Paul commands Christians to “withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly” – (peripatountos ataktos), a military term which means to fall out of ranks – “and not according to the tradition which he received from us,” i.e., the word of God which had been taught by the apostles and prophets (2 Thess. 3:6; cf. 2:15; 1 Cor. 11:2; 1 Thess. 2:13). Thus, a Christian proven to be unrepentantly committing any and all sins should have fellowship withdrawn from them after repeatedly pleading with them to repent.
Paul also urges them to “not even eat with such a one” (1 Cor. 5:11). While on the surface this seems harsh, viewing this command from a spiritual, eternal perspective helps us see why this is needed. The unrepentant sinner might be looking for any excuse to continue his sin. If his fellow Christians still eat with him and thus likely converse with him, they give him the impression that “everything’s okay” and he does not have to repent. Plus, the continued association with him at the table opens the door for others in the church to be influenced to follow his example and continue in their own sins. Instead of eating with him, Christians must “warn him as a brother” and do so with love (2 Thess. 3:14-15).
— Jon
To read Jon’s series on 1 Corinthians from the beginning and many other articles, visit https://predenominationalchristianity.com.