Dear friends,
Because of sin, immorality is universal. Sometimes it is so blatant that everybody can see it. But what happens if everybody can see it except for the church? In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul is dealing not only with immorality, but also with arrogance.
Yours,
Phillip
Phillip: Today, we will start off by reading 1 Corinthians 5:1-8
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Peter: I would have thought we would delve into all of chapter 5, and maybe even chapter 6. Why are you reading only half of this chapter?
Phillip: That is because of the significance of what is said here, its current applications, and the care with which we need to think through the issues raised. Chapters 1–4 have focused our attention on ministry and the unity of the church, but chapter 5 confronts us with a very difficult question about the presence in the congregation of serious moral failings. These sins are not just sexual; later in this chapter he talks about swindlers, idolaters and drunkards. Therefore, we will discuss today what I would call the arrogance of the immoral. Do you think that’s a fair description?
Peter: It’s a confronting description, but it is fair. What you put your finger on is interesting: the problem, in a sense, is not the man who’s committed this offence, but the reaction of the church, in its arrogance. ‘Arrogance’ is an unpleasant word, defined by Macquarie Dictionary1 as “Offensive exhibition of assumed or real superiority; overbearing pride.” What we see throughout 1 Corinthians is that the first sin is not so much the highly immoral one, but the ethos and attitude of the church in Corinth. It’s already illustrated, for example, by the way in which they take sides with the different preachers in chapter 1. Furthermore, we have also seen a sharp critique by the apostle in 4:6, 8, and 18; and so too in 5:6. But when confronted with such a great sin as incest, why does Paul blame the church, and how is that a warning for us?
Phillip: ‘Arrogance’ is never a word that a person applies to themselves. But Paul applies it to the Corinthians in 5:2. They think they rule, they think they’re kings, and yet within the church, there is a terrible evil: this incestuous relationship of a sexually immoral character. We don’t know the details, only that “a man has his father’s wife.” But it’s such that the non-Christians, the pagans, wouldn’t accept such behaviour. It’s called ‘arrogance’, however, because of the church’s superior attitude. The church’s problem is that they’ve taken no action, instead tolerating what has been done. Tolerance is a good thing in some ways, but it becomes a very bad thing when it is used to accept sinfulness. So, while the church tries to cover themselves with glory, appealing to the ‘big name’ preachers that they’re following, their acceptance and tolerance of the sinfulness of this person means that the church as a whole is corrupt.
Peter: That is what upsets Paul. It’s interesting that he preaches the way in which God, in his extraordinary love, takes us enemies of God and makes us one with Christ, yet we can see the danger of grace when it’s misunderstood. Because there is such a thing, to quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship,2 as “cheap grace.” He says, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” But the misunderstanding of grace is in thinking that because we’re forgiven, we are free to act how we want. Cheap grace, therefore, creates arrogance.
However, the first act of worship that we engage in is faith. When you put your faith in someone, you are praising that other person. In essence, you are saying, “I haven’t got this, the other person has; therefore, I trust them.” When we put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is our worship. But cheap grace enables you to become arrogant. Cheap grace, where you say, “I’m forgiven, therefore I’m free to behave as I wish,” is the opposite of faith. Grief, repentance and sorrow is our real act of worship.
But what does this passage tell us about the corruption of a church? Is it possible for such a thing to happen today?
Phillip: The gospel entry for us into church has to do with forgiveness. As we are forgiven, so we are always to have in our hearts forgiveness. The end of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew chapter 6 speaks of the necessity of being a forgiving person, as a person who has themselves been forgiven. Therefore, it’s always good to approach others with forgiveness in your heart. But forgiveness without atonement, without payment, is acceptance and even approval of sin. Sin always has a cost. Sometimes we cannot pay for what we have done; the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is about the wonder of God’s payment on our behalf.
One year, I came home during the Christmas holidays to find that the front fence of our house had been destroyed after a car had run through it. About half an hour afterwards, a father and his young teenage son came along and apologised to me. The son had been given a car for Christmas, and as he’d driven his first time around the block, he had wiped out our front fence. It was very painful for the young boy to repent, but the father was very quick to say, “We will pay for the new fence,” for the fence still had to be paid for. That was part of the forgiveness. For him to say, “I’m sorry, I hope you didn’t need a fence,” or “I hope you can afford to build your own,” would not be the way of forgiveness and repentance. The way of repentance is to at least offer if you cannot pay. But the wonder of the gospel is what God has paid for us.
But it’s not enough to preach forgiveness without also preaching repentance. As if, when you say “sorry”, I forgive you and it’s all forgotten, therefore we don’t have to worry about the woman that you bashed, or the child that you abused, or the money that you stole. That’s not grace. That’s accepting sin.
Peter: Yes, just saying “sorry” is not repentance. Repentance requires a determination to repair the relationship, to do the right thing.
Phillip: It has to do with going forward in a new way. But Jesus going forward in a new way is not enough either. There has to be a payment somewhere, and God in his kindness has paid the price for us.
Peter: Hence Bonhoeffer, “When Christ calls a man to him, he bids him come and die.”3 That’s not saying that we are to die in order to gain God’s grace. Rather, we “die” because having received God’s grace through the cross of Christ, we take up his cross daily and follow him. This is repentance. That presumably means that we all need to take account of the spiritual health of the congregation and be on the lookout for the tolerance which grows sin. This passage is not primarily about the sinner. It’s about the sinners, namely the congregation. The point of the passage is not to denounce the incest of the individual sinners, though we should do so anyway. It’s to denounce a congregation which, through arrogance, has practiced tolerance.
You mentioned ‘tolerance’ before, which is a popular word these days. In a sense, the greatest virtue of our society is tolerance, though I don’t see too much of it around. But is tolerance a Christian virtue? It could be, under certain circumstances. But always remember that the greatest Christian virtue is love. How do you best love the congregation, and the sinner within it? Paul addresses everybody in the congregation and is critical of all. For example, in 1 Timothy 4, he shows us that the teaching pastor is vital for the good health of the congregation, as the congregation needs to be taught. But it’s essential that we encourage, speaking the truth in love to one another, as is said in Ephesians 4, in order that we may live godly lives and build each other up. As congregation members, we must act positively and lovingly for the whole congregation, even if it requires rebuke.
Phillip: But the teacher is judged with the greatest strictness, as we’re told in James 3. 1 Timothy 4 also tells us that when an elder does something, public rebuke is required for the elder but not necessarily the whole congregation. The difficulty is when congregation members do something as outlandish as the person here in 1 Corinthians 5 is reported as doing. How do we handle it? There are two polar opposite approaches on the subject of church discipline that are difficult to negotiate. There is the desire to save members, and then there is the desire to have a pure church. But the pure church in this world is not going to happen, and we can’t always save members.
These conflicting desires are represented in the scriptures. Diotrephes in 3 John is the ‘patron saint’ of the pure church, as we see in 3 John 9–10
I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.
Diotrephes is the man who kicks people out of churches. That’s not the way to go. Representing the other extreme, however, is Thyatira in Revelation 2. The letter to the seven churches addresses Thyatira’s toleration of heresy and immorality. Revelation 2:20–21
But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.
Then the risen Lord Jesus goes on to denounce Jezebel and the judgement that will fall upon her. So Diotrephes and Thyatire are the representations of the 2 extremes: those who always resort to kicking people out of churches, and those who are happy to accept an ongoing, unrepentant sexual immorality. Both of these are wrong, but negotiating between them is difficult. That’s where most of us have to live and move.
Peter: What does Paul recommend here in Corinth in the face of a terrible sexual sin, condemned by the word of God in a context of arrogance and outward displays of sinful behaviour by the church?
Phillip: His recommendations are to “deliver him over to Satan,” placing him outside the fellowship of the church. But there are several things to note here. Firstly, what the man is doing is a heinous sin, bringing the cause of Christ into disrepute. The punishment must fit the crime, and we’re dealing with something very great here. Secondly, the judgement is the activity of the whole church. Paul asserts that though he is absent, he has already cast his vote, and the congregation needs to agree on the action they will take. But I particularly like the aim of the action. It’s remedial, for they are still concerned for the sinner. They place him outside, back into the world, treating him as a tax collector and a sinner in order that he may come to his right mind, repent and be saved. When the congregation is involved in these activities, it’s not to protect ourselves so much as to save the sinner. Diotrephes is putting people out of the church because he thinks highly of himself as a moralist, whereas Paul is concerned about saving this man.
Peter: So love, not tolerance, is key. I like what you said about delivering him to Satan. That means putting him back into the world, so to speak, which is dominated by Satan, the god of this world. That is awful, but the action is intended to bring him to his senses and back to Christ. But in speaking about these things in church life, we do need to be careful about such things as defamation. Sometimes things are said publicly which leave people open to legal action, and perhaps rightly so. After all, Christians are not above gossip. So how do we navigate such difficulties?
Phillip: It is difficult; there’s no doubt about that. In one sense, in a litigious society such as ours, people race to the law to defend themselves. But in another sense, people shouldn’t be defamed. That’s why it’s right that there are laws on defamation. We mustn’t say that which is untrue of people, or present them in a bad light for our own satisfaction. That’s why sometimes confession is better than accusation; to have people admit to what they’re doing, so that we are not making the accusation, but they are accepting it publicly or privately.
But think back to Jesus and his teaching in Matthew 18 about what we should do when a brother is causing offense to us. It’s not all that different to what we do when we see someone fall into sin. It starts with the offended person talking to the other person about the problem. If they listen and repent, that is a great victory. If they don’t, the next step is to take a witness with you. Then, with the knowledge that other people are seeing the problem, and that it’s not just your prejudice that is giving rise to the question of their behavior, see if the sinner may come to their right mind and confess. But you must do that before you go to the church. The part about going to the church can confuse us. ‘Going to the church’ can mean taking the concern to the office bearers, but Paul is saying that we should take it to the congregational meeting. Taking problems to the office bearers of the churches has created church courts and the like, which have not had a great history.
Peter: No, but it’s tricky to make sense of this, because church is a public occasion. Anyone can come to church in our setup, but that was not the case back in Paul’s day. Thus we need to be careful here, to take the difference between the church then and now into account. We need to be careful about what we’re summoning here.
Phillip: But the church was still public in those days. The non-Christian in 1 Corinthians 14 comes in and hears them preaching.
Peter: That’s a discussion for another day.
Phillip: We’ll work out about how public it is another time, but certainly we are in a different society now which is much more litigious about these things in particular. But if we can have the sinner confess their sins to the church, then it’s easier to be able to have the discussion resolved in a congregational meeting. It’s painful nonetheless. On other occasions, I have dealt with this issue, given the complexities of our church life, by talking about it with groups in the church rather than the total church. If you’re in a large church where not everybody knows each other, it is better to take the issue to whichever group that the person is a part of: for instance, other families of the Sunday school children, or amongst the other people in a Bible study group. The aim is that the church will hear that there is a need for repentance. There is the offer of forgiveness and the need for the person to be rescued. However you do it, these are the goals that you need to be seeking to achieve, especially their salvation.
Peter: To sum up, what we’re talking about is the health of the church, preeminently. And the church can be arrogant in many ways. Next week, as we come to chapter 5, we will talk about how the church can be moralistically arrogant.
Macquarie Dictionary. (n.d.) Arrogance. Retrieved March 17, 2026 from
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 2025 (Blue Harvest Publishing)
Ibid
Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Links & Recommendations
For more on this topic, check out this Campus Bible Study talk from 1977 on 1 Corinthians 3-4 (the audio quality isn’t great but a great listen nonetheless!)
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