Hi Mike,

I have read your article on What is Love over and over. Wonderful article! God is so wonderful to give you this great gift of understanding his word. I am planning, God willing, to go over this article Sunday with those at our bible study. I have one question in this part.

“Which brings us to the third ignored and despised section of God’s Words.

3) 1Co 5:1  It is reported commonly [ that there is] fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, hat one should have his father’s wife.
1Co 5:2  And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
1Co 5:3  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,
1Co 5:4  In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Co 5:5  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.
1Co 5:6  Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
1Co 5:7  Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
1Co 5:9  I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
1Co 5:10  Yet not 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.
1Co 5:11  But now 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.“

In the physical sense, what is Paul saying in 1Co 5:5 should happen to this guy who has done this deed? Your insight here would be appreciated. Thank you for putting God first in your life and sharing what God reveals to you.

YBIC,

G____

Hi G____,

I am so pleased that you are getting so much out of that e- mail. There are so very few who realize that love has more to do with obeying God than doing good to your neighbor. If one is obeying God, they will automatically be doing good to their neighbor!

The answer to your question will demonstrate that point. Paul is not saying that if that brother who had taken his father’s wife were to come into an inn where Paul was sitting and eating a meal, that he, Paul, would get up and leave the table. The phrase “eat with” does indeed include physically eating, but at the same time it included having fellowship with that person. That is why the disciples were confused when Christ said “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees”. They thought Christ was speaking of physical leaven only. So what Paul physically wanted that group of believers in Corinth to do was to ask that brother not to come to their fellowship until he repented of what he was doing. His presence in their midst gave the appearance of the church placing its stamp of approval upon his living arrangements with “his father’s wife”.

So the Corinthians did that very thing that Paul requested of them. They “put him out of their midst… and delivered that brother to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, and the spirit was saved in the day of the Lord Jesus”. The verses that commanded them to put the fornicator out of their fellowship, and the verses which show the affect of doing so are in your quote above.

The Corinthians “took this man away from among them.” In so doing, they “delivered him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh”, and “the spirit was saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

Here is how that happened.

2Co 2:1  But I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness.
2Co 2:2  For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me? [The fornicator of 1Co 5]
2Co 2:3  And I wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.
2Co 2:4  For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.
2Co 2:5  But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all.
2Co 2:6  Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many.
2Co 2:7  So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.
2Co 2:8  Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him.
2Co 2:9  For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.

“To this end did I write. that I might know… whether you are obedient in all things… written therein.” Paul is not speaking of obey him. He is speaking of being obedient to the commandments of God, which prohibit either physical or spiritual fornication within the body of Christ. It was their obedience to the commandments of God which let the Corinthians know “the love which Paul had more abundantly unto them.” It is painful to our natural man to be obedient to God.

2Co 2:4  For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.

I hope this answers your question. We do not tolerate open and blatant sin in the midst of our fellowship. “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” The same is true for heresies, which are spiritual idolatry and spiritual fornication and spiritual adultery.

2Jn 1:9  Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
2Jn 1:10  If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:
2Jn 1:11  For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.

Which words accord with Paul’s words in 1Co.

1Co 5:11  But now 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.

Those who cannot receive God’s commandments are many, and those who are drawn from the breasts are very few. But those few tremble at God’s commandments like this one.

1Ti 5:20  Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.

Paul did that with Peter, and if he had not, it would have been disastrous for both.

Gal 2:11  But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
Gal 2:12  For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
Gal 2:13  And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation [
Greek – hypocrisy].
Gal 2:14  But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?

There is but one Truth, and if we fail to confront heresy, it will “leaven the whole lump.” So we alway go to a multitude of counselors, and we always go to our brother himself.

Mat 18:15  Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
Mat 18:16  But if he will not hear [thee, then] take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
Mat 18:17  And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

Christians do not allow Hindus or Muslims to come and speak from their pulpit, and if these words were strictly followed, we would all be of the same mind and of the same spirit, as we are commanded to be.

2Co 13:11  Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.
Php 2:2  Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, [being] of one accord, of one mind.

1Pe 3:8  Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:

This is truly a piece of spiritual t-bone steak. All who obey these commandments are labeled as hard, cold- hearted tyrants. Even though the scriptures emphasize that “we have no dominion over your faith, those who adhere to the word of God and are faithful to and obey these commandments, are still called elitist, cold-hearted tyrants because they put obedience to God above what the natural man considers to be a loving action of tolerance. Those who place obedience over “tolerance and acceptance” are labeled “intolerant and exclusionists” simply because they refuse to compromise the commandments of of God’s words. I have heard both Benny Hinn and Paul Crouch blatantly say they wish they had a ‘holy ghost machine gun, with which to wipe out all the heresy hunters’.

I hope that makes clear what the Corinthians were expected to do physically with the fornicator that was among them, and I hope it helps you to see what we are commanded to do to remain of the same mind with Christ and not become just one more of the more than 30,000 differing and conflicting orthodox Christian denominations.

1Co 1:10  Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and [that] there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
Php 4:2  I beseech Euodias [we could say Catholics], and beseech Syntyche [or Protestants], that they be of the same mind in the Lord.

It is hard to stand with the Words of Christ in the face of opposition from the whole orthodox Christian world, but that is what is expected of those who will be the rulers of “the kingdoms of this world when they are made the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ”.

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

Your brother in Christ,

Mike