Hi Brother Mike,

Could you answer a question regarding 1Co 5:1 “… that one should have his father’s wife.” I just purchased the NLT and that verse says “stepmother” not “his father’s wife” (if this is of any significance.
Thanks again for all you do for His Body.
YBIC,

A____

Hi A____,

Thanks for your question. You say that the NLT says ‘stepmother’ instead of ‘his father’s wife’. That is just another way of saying the same thing, except that it does clarify that this man is not marrying his own mother.
Here is that verse in the King James Version with the Strong’s numbers:

1Co 5:1 It is reportedG191 commonlyG3654 that there is fornicationG4202 amongG1722 you, G5213 andG2532 suchG5108 fornicationG4202 asG3748 is not so much asG3761 namedG3687 amongG1722 theG3588 Gentiles, G1484 thatG5620 oneG5100 should haveG2192 his father’s G3962 wife. G1135

Those last two words “father’sG3962 wifeG1135” are important. The Greek for ‘father’s’ is ‘G3962, pater’, and the Greek for ‘wife’ is G1135, ‘gune’. The more accurate translation is “father’s wife”, as opposed to the word ‘stepmother’. This man has taken his father’s wife, and in doing that blatantly within the fellowship of the body of Christ. Spiritually, this man, through this blatant act of fornication, is guilty of attempting to take the disciples of Christ away from Christ.
Christ is the husband of His wife, who we are:

2Co 11:2 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.

This is exactly the sort of thing the apostle Paul referred to when he told the Ephesian elders he had been made to know that he would never again see them:

Act 20:25 And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.
Act 20:26 Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.
Act 20:27 For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
Act 20:28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
Act 20:29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Act 20:30 Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.

“Drawing away disciples after them[ selves]” is to spiritually take Christ, our Father’s wife away from Him, just as this man did in a literal and physical way.

Isa 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Christ is our “everlasting Father”, and anything we do which causes disciples to leave Him is spiritually us taking our Father’s wife unto ourselves as our own disciples.
I hope this answers your question and your concerns.

Your brother in the Christ.
Mike