1 Coríntios 5

¹ It isThey are greatly to be reprehended who by allowing wickedness, set forth the Church of God to be mocked and scorned by infidels.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.

² There are none more proud than they that least know themselves.And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.

³ Excommunication ought not to be committed to one man's power, but must be done by the authority of the whole congregation, after the matter is diligently examined.For I verily, as absent in body, but present inIn mind, thought, and will.spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, [concerning] him that hath so done this deed,

⁴ In theCalling upon Christ's name.name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit,There is no doubt that the judgment is ratified in heaven, in which Christ himself sits as Judge.with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

⁵ The one who is excommunicated is delivered to the power of Satan, in that he is cast out of the house of God.ToWhat it is to be delivered to Satan the Lord himself declares when he says, «Let him be unto thee as a heathen and publican»; (Mat_18:17). That is to say, to be disfranchised and put out of the right and privileges of the city of Christ, which is the Church, outside of which Satan is lord and master.deliver such an one unto Satan for theThe goal of excommunication is not to cast away the excommunicate that he should utterly perish, but that he may be saved, that is, that by this means his flesh may be tamed, that he may learn to live to the Spirit.destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

⁶ Another goal of excommunication is that others are not infected, and therefore it must of necessity be retained in the Church, so that one is not infected by the other.Your gloryingIs nothing and not grounded upon good reason, as though you were excellent, and yet there is such wickedness found among you.[is] not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

⁷ By alluding to the ceremony of the passover, he exhorts them to cast out that unclean person from among them. In times past, he says, it was not lawful for those who celebrated the passover to eat unleavened bread, insomuch that he was held as unclean and unworthy to eat the passover, whoever had but tasted of leaven. Now our whole life must be as it were the feast of unleavened bread, in which all they that are partakers of that immaculate lamb which is slain, must cast out both of themselves, and also out of their houses and congregations, all impurity.Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a newBy lump he means the whole body of the Church, every member of which must be unleavened bread, that is, be renewed in spirit, by plucking away the old corruption.lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ ourThe Lamb of our passover.passover is sacrificed for us:

⁸ Therefore let us keep theLet us lead our whole life as it were a continual feast, honestly and uprightly.feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened [bread] of sincerity and truth.

⁹ Now he speaks more generally: and that which he spoke before of the incestuous person he shows that it pertains to others, who are known to be wicked and those who through their wicked life are a slander to the Church, who ought also by lawful order be cast out of the community of the Church. And making mention of eating meals, either he means that feast of love at which the supper of the Lord was received, or else their common usage and manner of life. And this is to be properly understood, lest any man should think that either matrimony was broken by excommunication, or such duties hindered and cut off by it, as we owe one to another: children to their parents, subjects to their rulers, servants to their masters, and neighbour to neighbour, to win one another to God.I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:

¹⁰ Yet notIf you should utterly abstain from such men's company, you should go out of the world. Therefore I speak of those who are in the very bosom of the Church, who must be brought back into order by discipline, and not of those who are outside of the Church, with whom we must labour by all means possible, to bring them to Christ.altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.

¹¹ But nowe I haue written vnto you, that ye companie not together: if any that is called a brother, be a fornicatour, or couetous, or an idolater, or a rayler, or a drunkard, or an extorsioner, with such one eate not.

¹² Those who are false brethren ought to be cast out of the congregation. As for those who are outside of it, they must be left to the judgment of God.For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?

¹³ But God iudgeth them that are without. Put away therefore from among your selues that wicked man.