Immorality Rebuked

(Leviticus 20:10-21; Proverbs 5:1-23)

1It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and of a kind unheard of even among the Gentiles—a man has his father's wife! 2And you, instead of mourning and removing from among you the man who has done this deed of shame, are filled with self-complacency!

3I for my part, present with you in spirit although absent in body, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has so acted. 4In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are all assembled and my spirit is with you, together with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5I have handed over such a man to Satan for the destruction of his body, that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord Jesus.

6It is no good thing—this which you make the ground of your boasting. Do you not know that a little yeast corrupts the whole of the dough? 7Get rid of the old yeast so that you may be dough of a new kind; for in fact you *are* free from corruption. For our Passover Lamb has already been offered in sacrifice—even Christ. 8Therefore let us keep our festival not with old yeast nor with the yeast of what is evil and mischievous, but with bread free from yeast—the bread of transparent sincerity and of truth.

Expel the Immoral Brother

9I wrote to you in that letter that you were not to associate with fornicators; 10not that in this world you are to keep wholly aloof from such as they, any more than from people who are avaricious and greedy of gain, or from worshippers of idols. For that would mean that you would be compelled to go out of the world altogether. 11But what I meant was that you were not to associate with any one bearing the name of "brother," if he was addicted to fornication or avarice or idol-worship or abusive language or hard-drinking or greed of gain. With such a man you ought not even to eat. 12For what business of mine is it to judge outsiders? Is it not for you to judge those who are within the Church 13while you leave to God's judgement those who are outside? Remove the wicked man from among you.