| (Copyright 05-19-2025) by Gregory Diaz (Paterson, New Jersey) |
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| In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church, he addresses a type of fornication “not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife” (1 Cor 5:1). He tells them that, rather than mourning, they were “puffed up” and “glorying” over the man’s deed (verses 2 and 6). The seemingly clear and simple view is that the Corinthians, rather than judging him, were glorying in their tolerance of the man’s egregious sin. However, if we consider the message and example of Jesus, this non-judgmental treatment of a sinner would have been precisely what Jesus taught his disciples to do. Jesus tells us in Matt 7:1, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” We see in Matt 9:10-11 and 11:19 that Jesus did not avoid eating with sinners. He tells us that those that come to him he “will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). On the contrary, we know that the Pharisees would not eat with sinners. Jesus warns us of the leaven of the Pharisees (Luke 12:1). This leaven, in addition to their hypocrisy, was also their DOCTRINE (Luke 12:1, Matt 16:12). Let us understand what their doctrine was and IS, since we must continue to BEWARE of it. The word Pharisee itself means “separated ones.” This defines their doctrine. They separated from sinners! We see this in Matt 9:11 and in John 9:34. We also see that believing Pharisees in the church taught the necessity of circumcision. The physical operation of circumcision would only be available to repentant men. They would have to have the appearance of righteousness in order to receive the physical operation. Sinners could not be circumcised. Since the Pharisees taught separation from anyone uncircumcised, it meant that if you were uncircumcised, it was because you were still a sinner (Gal 2:15). Of course, although only men can receive the physical operation, women likewise must be living according to a standard of righteousness to be received into fellowship by the Pharisees. Notice that the ungodly men spoken of in the Epistle of Jude are described as “they who separate themselves” (Jude 1:19). In the Epistle to the Galatians, Paul, speaking of those that taught “another gospel,” warns that “they would EXCLUDE you” (Gal 4:17). Let us understand that this doesn’t mean the Pharisees would maintain a separation after a person repented. The Pharisees did proselytize and therefore accepted those that were willing to repent (Matt 23:15). The idea that Jesus only ate with repentant sinners is incorrect since he was said to be “a friend of publicans and sinners” (Matt 11:19). Let us understand that the controversy concerning circumcision is the defining issue of the New Testament. Notice the response of the apostles to the Pharisees that believed (Acts 15:5) but required the outward appearance of righteousness from Gentile believers. They explained that it is an unbearable burden (Acts 15:10, 28) for a person to build righteous character while being cut off from fellowship (and impossible if cut off from God). They next proceeded to teach that believers must abstain from fornication (Acts 15:28-29). We must understand why teaching this abstinence was, and IS, the appropriate response to the doctrine of the Pharisees. The Bible often refers to Israel and the church as a woman. In Revelation 21, the church is called New Jerusalem and the bride of Christ (verses 2 and 9-10). In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul seeks to present the church as an espoused and chaste virgin to Christ (verse 2). However, in Revelation 17 we see a different type of woman. She is called the great whore (verse 1). She is “drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus” (verse 6). She is a whore because she calls herself Christian, and therefore claims to be espoused to Christ, yet has united with the world. She is clearly in opposition to the servants of God, just as the Pharisees had been during the early years of the church. Verse 3 tells us that the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her. Let us consider the fornication of the great whore. She is wrathful and therefore judgmental (Rev 18:3). The kings that have committed fornication with her are the world’s authority. Since the kings of the earth commit fornication with her, it is evident they have united with her wrath. Therefore, just as sexual fornication is a physical union, the fornication of the kings with the great whore is a union with her judgment. In 1 Corinthians 5:11, Paul tells us, “I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.” Consider how the description of the great whore compares with Paul’s instruction. The great whore is a fornicator (Rev 17:2). She is lustful and, therefore, covetous (Rev 18:14). She is “full of names of blasphemy” and, therefore, an idolater (Rev 17:3). She is wrathful and, therefore, a railer (Rev 18:3). She is “drunken with the blood of the saints” (Rev 17:6). She has made the merchants (great men of the earth, Rev 18:23) rich, as well as living deliciously herself (Rev 18:7, 9), “through the abundance of her delicacies” (Rev 18:3). It is through these “delicacies,” or the pressure she exerts on the world to glorify her, that she is, therefore, an extortioner. We should better understand 1 Corinthians 5 from the context of the surrounding chapters of the epistle. Let us also be aware that Peter tells us there “are some things hard to be understood” in the epistles of Paul (2 Pet 3:16). Certainly Paul could not be teaching the opposite of what Jesus taught. Nor could Paul be saying the opposite of what he had just written in the previous chapter! 1 Cor 4:5 says, “judge nothing before the time.” Paul asks them in verse 7, “why dost thou glory (of righteousness), as if thou hadst not received it?” Righteousness is a gift (Rom 5:17, Phil 3:9, 2 Tim 2:25). Just as in the relationship between the kings of the earth and the great whore, Paul warns the Corinthians that they dare not use the authority of the world for judgment (1 Cor 6:1). This chapter clearly connects this behavior with fornication. Verse 15 asks, “Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot?” Notice that 2 Cor 12:21 mentions “MANY which have sinned already and have NOT repented.” This implies that the entire congregation had sinned, with some remaining unrepentant. It seems clear that this fornication concerns unity with the world’s justice system. The entire congregation (2 Cor 12:21) had united with the worldly judgment of one man who had done wrong to another (2 Cor 7:12). Notice that since he had wronged another, he hadn’t committed the kind of fornication that was a sin against his own body (1 Cor 6:18, 2 Cor 7:12). The Corinthians were contentious and divided into denominations. They each claimed to belong to various men (1 Cor 1:11-12). Notice that in chapter 4:6, Paul, on the same topic, tells them not to be “puffed up for one AGAINST another.” He admonishes them to be “perfectly JOINED together in the same mind and in the same JUDGMENT” (1 Cor 1:10). In 1 Cor 6:17, Paul tells them, “he that is JOINED unto the Lord is one spirit.” We see a theme of uniting with the Lord versus that of uniting with man’s judgment. And, we know from Revelation 18:3 that to be JOINED together with man’s authority is a fornicating union. In the very first chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul alludes to the topic of leavening. He says, “He that GLORIETH, let him GLORY in the Lord” (verse 31). He contrasts the wisdom of man and excellency of speech with the POWER of the gospel (1 Cor 2:1, 4). He is comparing the wisdom of man’s government, as a means of producing unity, with the “POWER of God” (verse 5). The holy spirit has the power to give Christians a common understanding (1 Cor 2:13). Remaining on the same topic, in 1 Cor 4:19, Paul seeks to know the POWER that the Corinthians were using. In other words, were the Corinthian Pharisees using the authority of man’s government to maintain control over the congregation? Were they excluding people that disagreed with them? Were they separating out uncircumcised sinners? 1 Cor 6:1-7 tells us that Christians DARE not use the power of the world’s justice system. Notice in chapter 5, Paul is NOT suggesting that the Corinthians physically remove the sinner. Notice that he tells them to MOURN (verse 2), “that he that hath done this deed might be TAKEN AWAY FROM AMONG YOU.” Through prayer and fasting, we are to request that God do the removing. God removes the person from the membership of the spiritual body of the church and the protection it affords. God delivers the person “unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh” (verse 5). It is to be done “with the POWER of our Lord Jesus Christ” (verse 4). This is clearly important since Paul had just stated in the previous chapter (1 Cor 4:19) that he would “know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the POWER.” We are to purge out the old leaven. Since the church is not an organization of men, only those possessing the holy spirit are inside the church. Likewise, although a person may be inside an organization, he or she might not be inside the church. This is important to our understanding of what it means to purge out the old leaven. Notice Young’s Literal Translation renders the end of 1 Cor 5:13 “and put ye away the evil from among yourselves.” Notice that this differs from the KJV, which says, “put away from among yourselves that wicked PERSON.” We are to put away the evil, the leaven, from ourselves. God judges them that are outside the spiritual organization and that cause offenses. Notice the demeanor that Christians should have. Paul says in 1 Cor 6:7, “Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?” We will find this easier to do if we remember that Jesus prayed to the Father concerning the church, “that thou shouldest keep them from the evil” (John 17:15). Jesus also tells us that offenses will come (Matt 18:7), “but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” In Matt 18:20, Jesus tells us, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” In other words, Jesus will be with us to oversee and protect the church if we will put our trust in him to do so. In 1 Cor 5:1, Paul says, “there is fornication AMONG YOU, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles?” The explanation given for this verse is that this sin was so egregious, even Gentiles would not do it. However, this view contradicts Lev 18:8, which tells us, “The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness,” and Lev 18:24, which tells us (concerning this and other incestuous relationships), “Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the NATIONS (Gentiles) are defiled which I cast out before you.” We see that incest is certainly named among the Gentiles. Therefore, there must be an alternative to this view that does not conflict with Leviticus 18. There is a clear explanation considering the context and topic of the epistle. Notice 1 Cor 4:15: “For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many FATHERS: for in Christ Jesus I have BEGOTTEN you through the gospel.” Keeping the context between chapters four and five, this verse shows us that Paul is the father in 1 Cor 5:1. Paul had begotten the Corinthians through the gospel. We also know that metaphorically, the Bible refers to the church as a woman and as the bride of Christ. Let us consider how the church can metaphorically be understood to be the “woman” of Paul. To explain this, first consider the meaning of the Greek word translated as “wife” in 1 Cor 5:1. The Greek word for wife is gynē (pronounced goo-nay’). The Blue Letter Bible defines gynē as a wife but can also define it as “a woman of any age, whether a virgin, or married, or a widow.” It is translated as “woman” 96 times, as “women” 33 times, and as “wife” 92 times. The 2001 Translation Bible translates gynē as woman in 1 Cor 5:1. Consider the role Paul has in the relationship between the church and Christ. In 2 Cor 11:2, Paul writes, “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may PRESENT you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” Notice that Paul wants to PRESENT the church to Christ. As the father of the Corinthians, Paul is the caretaker of the church. The woman is Paul’s in the sense that a father gives away the bride at her wedding. However, the church must be a virgin. It must not accept another Jesus, another gospel or another spirit. Since Jesus did not practice the doctrine of separation held by the Pharisees, the church, in order to be considered a virgin, must not either. When Paul describes the fornication at Corinth as “such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles,” it is because the church is espoused to Christ. A person that doesn’t claim to be a Christian isn’t espoused to Christ. Therefore, unbelievers and unbelieving Gentiles, not calling themselves Christians, cannot commit fornication with the world’s justice system, since they are not claiming to be espoused to, or claiming to be in a relationship with Christ. It is a type of fornication that CANNOT be named among the Gentiles. By calling ourselves Christians, we become ambassadors of God’s way. If we misrepresent God, we take His name in vain. Of course, it is true “that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (1 Cor 5:6). Yet, it makes a complete difference in the meaning of the chapter if we misunderstand the type of leaven Paul had in mind in his epistle. Clearly, Jesus warned us of the “leaven of the Pharisees.” Jesus never warned us of the leaven of tolerating physical sexual sins. Although Jesus was in the world, He did not become leavened by it. Consider the parable of the leaven “hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened” (Matt 13:33). This parable teaches us that a small group of Christians will transform the world into righteousness. With God’s help, we will transform the world, rather than the world transforming us. We must let our light shine. Editor’s Note: I followed until this point. The fornication of 1 Cor. 5 is not a metaphor. There was a Corinthian Church and it would not be unreasonable for a person in that church or any other church for that matter to be having sex with his physical father’s wife. This stuff happens all the time. In 1 Cor. they did have the man leave the congregation and in 2 Cor. the man repented, and they did bring him back into the congregation. From the Internet: Yes, there was a real Christian church in ancient Corinth, founded by the Apostle Paul around 51 AD. The church community lived in the bustling Roman metropolis of Corinth, a major hub for trade and travel. The sin that Paul called out as not even named among the Gentiles was a case of incest: a man was having a sexual relationship with his stepmother (1 Corinthians 5:1). The Corinthian Church Context: Ancient Corinth was a famously immoral city, known for its widespread prostitution and devotion to the goddess of love, Aphrodite. This environment significantly influenced the early Christians who lived there. Establishment: The church was founded by Paul during his second missionary journey, and he stayed there for about a year and a half to teach and build the congregation. Correspondence: After leaving, Paul wrote two letters to the Corinthian believers—the books of 1 and 2 Corinthians—to address numerous conflicts and challenges that had arisen in the community. The sin not named among the Gentiles Severity: Paul highlighted the shocking nature of this incestuous relationship by comparing it to the standards of the surrounding pagan culture. Even in the sexually permissive Roman world, this specific act was viewed with disgust and was condemned by Roman law. Church’s reaction: The Corinthian church was not only tolerating the sin but was “puffed up” with arrogance about it instead of mourning and dealing with the issue. Paul’s command: Paul instructs the believers to expel the offender from their fellowship. He uses the metaphor of “leaven,” which spreads through the whole batch of dough, to emphasize that unchecked sin could corrupt the entire church. Goal of discipline: The purpose of this severe church discipline was not permanent damnation, but to bring the man to repentance so that “his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus”. Later, in 2 Corinthians, Paul refers to this same individual who has repented and was to be restored to fellowship. End of Quote. Darwin and I have both in years past been disfellowshipped from a church of God group, so we know how that feels. However, with that said, it was for the better in the long run, so we don’t regret having been disfellowshipped. I do not know what you had to endure or not endure as far as being in a church of God group, but I have noticed that in many of your articles you are either trying to make sense of disfellowshipment or you want to make it a wrong thing for anyone to do. One thing we noticed in having church services in our home through the years is that it would be a rare thing to have to disfellowship anyone. Most people who do not agree with your church practices and beliefs will leave on their own. Churches are supposed to be healing places for sinners and every person found in any church is a sinner. With that said would there ever be a reason to disfellowship a person. The answer to that is yes. There could be any number of reasons to ask someone to leave a congregation but when doing that it would have to be for a sin and not just a misunderstanding of what scripture says therefore leading to a misunderstanding of doctrine. For example, if two men or two women come into a congregation claiming to be married, someone needs to explain to them why that is a sin and perhaps ask them to leave until they can repent of that sin. If on the other hand two men or two women come into a congregation to learn and no one knows they are married or that they even have a relationship there is no reason to ask them to leave because they are not flaunting their sin and perhaps really did come to learn about God and the bible. The same would go for any sin. Tolerating egregious sins in a congregation of any kind does not make you a righteous person because you are able to tolerate such things. It makes you an accomplice in the sin, meaning you are just as guilty as the person who is flaunting their sin in front of an entire congregation. Many churches especially the Church of God misuse disfellowshipment to get rid of people with differing beliefs or because they just don’t like that person and not because of sin. The flip side of disfellowshipment is repentance. You can repent of a sin when you understand it is wrong. How do you repent of not agreeing with a minister? Not agreeing with someone is not a sin and you can’t find it on any of the sin lists. For example, the minister told you to buy a red car and you bought a blue car or the minister told you what girl to marry and you married a different girl. Those are not sins and yet people have been disfellowshipped for these and other similar things, not because they defied God but because they defied a minister who thought he was God and had the right to tell you what to do and when. As I implied earlier, I don’t know how disfellowshipment connected to your life personally or if it even did, but my advice would be to leave whatever past hurt it brought to you in the dust. God has a far better plan for you than you even know. Trying to make sense of things that don’t make sense is a useless waste of energy which you can better use for more constructive things now and in the future. Laura Lee If we accept the idea that sinners must be removed from fellowship, how zealous must we be? Jesus tells us “I would thou wert cold or hot” (Rev 3:15). Since all people sin, what is the criteria that we use to determine who must be removed? Paul tells us in 2 Cor 1:19 that his preaching of Jesus Christ “was not yea and nay, but in him was yea.” Paul tells us that those “comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise” (2 Cor 10:12). If we consider the message of Jesus and the context of 1 Corinthians, it becomes clear that the fornication of 1 Corinthians 5 is a metaphor portraying a congregation united to the judgment of a man. As Jesus warned his disciples, Paul likewise taught the Corinthians to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. They had become “puffed up for one against another” (1 Cor 4:6) and received “another spirit” (2 Cor 11:4). Christians must “purge out therefore the old leaven” (1 Cor 5:7). We must SING the new song, as virgins espoused to Christ (Rev 14:3-4). Editor’s Note: We do not listen to video links or read print material that is linked to items we print, so we may or may not agree with those links. We only look at print material that is sent to us for print. Laura Lee —————————————————————— Reprinted with permission from: Gregory Diaz https://bazinta.com/index.php?t=KJV —————————————————————— |
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The over all flow of the article is broken up by the insertion of a substantially long rebuttal which seems somewhat disrespectful to the author.
The editor’s note is not meant to be disrespectful. It is meant to help not only the author of the article but also those reading the article. Laura Lee