Lesson 459

(Lesson 459)(11-17-12) 1 Corinthians 5:1-7, "It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened."

In this lesson, Paul tells the Church how to discipline its own, instructing them to leave all who are outside the Church to the Judgment of God. He makes it very clear that the Church is to disassociate itself from those who practice fornication, leaving them to the judgment of God, to punish them in the flesh, while still retaining their souls.

He warns that to allow one, who is guilty of these things, to remain in the Church, also would allow that one to eventually corrupt the whole congregation.

Paul seems to be calling out those who were clinging to the restrictions of the law, as well as those who were committing fornication. It appears that some in the Corinthian Church were overlapping the law and Jewish tradition, with Christianity.

Tomorrow's lesson will, hopefully, help clear this up.~