1 Corinthians Commentary Chapter 5

[瑤翰 김요한]

 The authors of the Bible are truly pure people.

If they were not, they would not have been able to easily deal with content like 1 Corinthians 5.

The Bible, which should deal with the issue of blessings, talks about human sin and its consequences.

However, the scriptures of other religions do not deal with these issues.

The fact that the Bible deals with these human shortcomings means that it is a prescription for treating the consequences of their corruption.

Therefore, the Bible is said to be an instruction manual for the product called human beings.

The Bible is the Bible because its purpose is the holiness of God's people.

The story of the corrupt process becomes the process of healing fallen humans.

It is the same principle that the disease of our flesh is diagnosed and then a method of treatment is found.

The Bible raises the problem of corrupt humans and presents a prescription for it, for example, the story of a father going around a brothel to find his prodigal son who ran away from home.

Therefore, the fact that it contains stories of dirty and filthy humans does not weaken the sacred authority of the Bible.

The Bible deals with sinners and the sick.

When doctors treat patients, they deal with all the filth of the patients.

The Bible reveals all the dirty and filthy parts of humans and heals them.

Therefore, the phenomenon that occurs after receiving the word is that they experience more failures than before and find themselves in a worse state .

But why does Paul take this vulnerable problem of humans so seriously?

It is because of the legalistic nature of the Corinthian church. 

Jews value the traditions of their ancestors, the 12 tribes. 

They especially value the lineage of the eldest son. Korea also had such a tradition in the past.

However, there are many shameful incidents in their genealogy.

Reuben is Jacob's firstborn (Gen. 35). The firstborn committed adultery with his stepmother Bilhah (Gen. 49, 1 Chronicles 5).

So, although the name of the eldest son remained, his legitimacy was lost.

Bilhah gave birth to Dan and Naphtali.

However, Dan became the enemy of his brothers.

For example, he became like Hitler.

Such incidents continued even with David.

Absalom deliberately committed adultery with David's concubines (2 Sam. 16:22).

It was a serious challenge to the father's authority.

That is why Leviticus prohibits incest.

Verse 1: “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles; that one should have his father’s wife.”

Fornication, father's wife, do not challenge authority.

Because a couple is one body.

Ezekiel 22:7 In you they have treated father and mother with contempt.

Verse 10 In you have they discovered their fathers’ nakedness.

Verse 11 One has committed abomination with his neighbor’s wife, and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law, and another in you humbled his sister, his father's daughter.

Verse 12 They have forgotten me, says the Lord God.

The core of the problem of the Corinthian church is that they have forgotten God.

So, Chapter 5 of the Corinthian Church points out that the Corinthian church is guilty of challenging the authority established by God.

Verse 2 “But you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that done this deed might be taken away from among you?”

Because you are puffed up... The sin of the Corinthian church is clearly due to the lack of consciousness of God.

The decisive problem of the Corinthian church is that Christ is not in them. (2 Corinthians 13:5)

The Holy Spirit is the spirit that makes us fear God (Isaiah 11:2). 

However, the Corinthian church was still flesh in Christ (Chapter 3).

Therefore, because they did not have the fear of God, that is, the consciousness of His presence, they ended up doing what they thought was right.

Therefore, the evidence of a person who has been born again and has the Holy Spirit is the consciousness of God’s presence.

The lack of consciousness of God’s presence is the problem of children in legalistic faith.

Verse 3 “For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have  judged already, as though I were present, concerning him  that has so done this deed.”

Paul is already judging the problem people in the Corinthian church in spirit.

He had eyes to see from God’s perspective. 

This became their judgment.

The method of discipline is verse 5 based on verse 4.

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul disciplined others with the word and the spirit.

He gave the flesh to Satan and saved the spirit.

The prayer of a person whose word of God is fulfilled through the Holy Spirit can pray like the Lord Jesus Christ.

For example, when he said, “Bring the donkey,” it happened, and when he said to the demon, “Go out,” it happened.

Just as when he said to the storm, “Be calm,” and when he cursed the fig tree, it happened as he said, those who are united in the Holy Spirit and the word of truth will have their words fulfilled.

However, this mystery is so great that it is not easy to understand.

It is subjective and only those who have received the word know.

Paul disciplines remotely with his spirit.

Verse 4 “In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,”

Paul says that my spirit is with you in the name of the Lord Jesus.

It says that he has the power of our Lord Jesus.

This tells us that we must be given clear spiritual authority to discipline.

Verse 5 “To delivery such an one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

It says that the flesh is destroyed, but the spirit is saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Christian death means putting on physical clothes and then changing into other clothes..

Just as we take off our winter clothes and change into spring clothes when spring comes, through death we take off our physical shell and change into new clothes.

This is the mystery after the death of the flesh.

While we live on this earth, just as a baby in the womb yearns for the outside world, we yearn for the mystery beyond death on this earth.

After all, humans are spiritual beings.

It is either a ghost or the Holy Spirit.

The day of the Lord Jesus means the day when salvation is completed.

For example, if someone’s body was destroyed due to discipline, it can be understood as Ananias and Sapphira.

And among Koreans, there is a saying that men are sick for 20 years and women are sick for 30 years.

If a Christian is in this situation, he or she must think about God's discipline.

Christian freedom is not the freedom of the body, that is, the freedom of the flesh, but the freedom of the spirit (2 Corinthians 3:17).

The church in Corinth ended up using the freedom of the spirit as the freedom of the body. 

It was debauchery.

Therefore, heaven should always be spoken of in a spiritual dimension.

David was told not to take a census, but he insisted on it and was eventually punished

This is not a sin related to salvation, but a sin that disciplines the flesh.

Although forgiveness of sin and death through the Lord Jesus Christ was done once and for all, sins committed in the body that transgressed the Word of God are resolved through disciplinary forgiveness.

You and I may have such disciplined suffering or illness.

Verse 6 “Your glorying is not good. Know you not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?”

It said your glorying, but Paul’s glorying was about the church and the saints.

For Paul, the saints are the crown of glorying. (1 Thessalonians 2:19)

Therefore, we must be one another’s glorying. (2 Corinthians 1:14)

It say that a little leaven leavens through the whole lump, so you should glory about the grace that God has given you and not glory about yourself.

Therefore, when giving testimony, you should be especially careful to only praise God.

Some people go around to many churches to give testimony and end up losing their faith.

Testimony is not such a good thing.

In particular, testifying about seeing heaven and hell is really childish.

That is a dramatic way for God to invite them to salvation for their salvation, so what if they go around bragging about it as if they are a class leader?

Verse 7 “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:”

Purge out the old leaven Romans 11:16 “For if the firstfruit be holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.”

In order to become a new lump, we must become unleavened bread. This is holiness.

The power of the saints lies in the holiness that Christ has made holy.

It tells us to think of the sacrifice of Christ, who became our Passover, that is, his death.

It tells us to commemorate the burial with his death and the unity in his resurrection through his being raised.

We must remember the grace of Christ’s atonement while we are in the flesh, so that it may be preserved with holiness.

Therefore, we must always remember and meditate on the fact that Christ and I are one.

In the Old Testament, each person must bring a ransom when approaching God.

Because they were sinners.

However, after Christ was offered as the Passover lamb, we do not approach God as sinners, but as His children to receive God's mercy and blessings.

Therefore, when you go to God, you should not say, ‘Father, I am a sinner.’

You must start out as a sinner and receive God’s forgiveness through the grace of Jesus Christ’s atonement.

You must always keep in mind that you have become righteous by believing in and following Christ, who died once for our sins in Adam and was raised for our righteousness (Rom 4:25).

Through Christ our passover, we have become sons of God and have gained the qualification to go to the throne of God’s grace.

In the Spirit and truth in Christ.

Verse 8 “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

It is a word to keep the feast, not with the feast, but with Christ, the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

It means to advance to perfection.

Old leaven is legalistic. In other words, it is Jewish.

The Jews are a people who received the law and the temple, but they rejected and killed Jesus Christ, so they are still Gentiles in Christ. 

They are commemorating the bread of old leaven.

Under the law, the problem of human sin can never be solved.

If there was a law, sins by the law would be resolved in the temple, but since the Lord ordered this temple to be destroyed, there is no more temple on this earth. 

Therefore, there is no way to deal with sins by the law.

The meaning of becoming a new lump is that the way to overcome sin is for God, Christ, and I to become one lump in the Holy Spirit.

It will never work to say, you must not do that because it is a sin, and you must do it this way. 

You can overcome sin only when you hate sin.

Nature is our garden that shows us what true freedom is.

Therefore, Christians should be sensitive to the flow of nature rather than the flow of this world.

Nature has no words, only signals.

Likewise, the Spirit of Christ teaches us such spiritual discernment and principles.

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ changes the tendency of our thoughts.

If someone says the word sin a lot, there is a high possibility that he is still in sin.

The righteous do not think of sin because their inclination is toward the thoughts of the Spirit.

Therefore, the person who condemns others is not a righteous person, but a sinner.

The misfortune of man is not because of poverty, ignorance, and bad environment, but because he has no object to think deeply about and love.

All things, whether high or deep, are the dimension of man. Man was created to be able to adapt to any given environment, be content, and be happy. (Psalm 23:1)

Nevertheless, humans have the problem of not only eating, drinking, and wearing, but also the problem of having no choice but to sin.

Therefore, we should not look at this problem of human sin from the perspective of good and evil, but we should look at the problem of human beings from the perspective of being one with Christ, the holy leaven.

If you are certain that you have been born again in Christ and have eternal life, you will love Christ and keep the commandments that made you one with Him, and God's love will be revealed in you and you will love your brothers.

We do not overcome sin by making up our minds not to sin, but by love.

Also, because we sometimes fall into darkness and flounder, we give my sovereignty to Christ and humbly bow down before the Lord, saying, “The Lord must increase in me, and I must decrease.”

We are also led by the Lord who says, “Arise, let us go hence.” (John 14:31), and we hold on to him and go toward the throne of God’s grace in truth. This is the unleavened bread.

From that perspective, I encourage you to deeply meditate on the meaning of the remaining verses of 1 Corinthians 5:9-13.

Written by Ptr. Yohan Kim.

Translated by  Nancy Chung

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