HAVING spoken about the problem of divisions in the Corinthian church, and sought to enforce his authority as an apostle, Paul begins to deal with the many problems within the church in Corinth. The first one is gross immorality in a church member.

The problem here is not of a church member falling into sin, but rather a church member blatantly flaunting his sin without shame, treating it as if it did not matter, and that it was quite acceptable. We need to remember this as we relate Paul's teaching here with Christ's injunction in the Sermon on the Mount, where he says “Do not judge, or you will be judged.” (Matthew 7: 1) There is no place for a judgemental spirit within the church, but this does not mean that blatant sin should be allowed to flourish. The problem in the church in Corinth seems to be that they did not seem to think that this blatant sin mattered very much. Indeed they seemed to be proud of it.(v.2)

We are not told how they were proud but it is likely that they were affirming that they were saved by grace and not by their own works, and interpreting this as saying that it did not matter whether they sinned, for they would still be saved. Paul deals with this error in Romans 6 where he says, “Shall we sin that grace may abound - God forbid!”

Paul describes the blatant sin for us. It was blatant sexual immorality of a kind that even the world frowned on. A church member was having an open sexual relationship with his father's wife. This need not mean that he was having this relationship with his mother, who may have died and his father's wife would then be his second wife.

Paul plainly sees this as a shame on the church and bringing the faith of Christ into disrepute in the world around. Paul tells them in verse 2 that they should be ashamed and grieving over this shameful thing. Instead they were proud. Paul tells them that though he is not present physically, he is present in spirit and he has already condemned this action, and tells the church that when they meet together and the power of the Lord Jesus is present, they must discipline this person. Handing him over to Satan would appear to mean that they must excommunicate him from the fellowship until he repents and ceases in this relationship. The purpose of such an action is for the mortification of the flesh, and the well-being of the soul. (v.5)

In verses 6-8 Paul points out the seriousness of the church's proud attitude to this sin. Paul tells the church that sin is like yeast. It may seem a small matter, but soon infects the whole church, and damages the fellowship, and gives a bad witness to the world. For this reason the only thing to do is to eradicate this sinful yeast, for only in this way can its effect on the whole fellowship be prevented. This tells us how dangerous is any sin or error that is allowed to remain in the church. If it is not removed, then it soon will infect the whole fellowship, and the spiritual life of the church will be gradually destroyed. This raises a big question about the church in every age, whether the evil yeast is blatant sin or error in doctrine.

In the final verses 9-11 Paul urges the fellowship at Corinth to shun association with those in the church who blatantly flaunt immoral practice. Paul makes it plain that he is speaking of a member of the fellowship, and not people in the world outside the fellowship. We can't separate ourselves from the world around, nor have we any authority over the world. It is those who call themselves brothers that Paul is referring to. We need to face that it is possible for church members and Christians to sin and have an attitude to sin such as is described in this chapter. It warns us to be careful for ourselves, and realise that we are not immune to Satan's temptations, and we need the grace of God to keep us from sin.