1 Corinthians 5:11 Commentary and Bible Study

How careful is the apostle’s language – ‘If any man that is called a brother’: he professes, he claims to be a brother. Of course, he may not be really, but if he claims to be, and yet he is a fornicator, unrepentant and engaged in that, then he must be put out of the church.These are the offences for which people ought to be excluded from the church: ‘If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous.’ Yes, but everybody is covetous to some degree, wanting more for the sake of it; wanting better for the sake of it; not being content with what is reasonable and adequate; wanting to look a bit better. It is like pride; it is a pervasive sin. It clearly means people who are brazenly and excessively covetous people. It is the engine of their life. That is a serious thing for a Christian. Elsewhere, the apostle Paul calls it idolatry: to be so covetous, you must derive your satisfaction from things and possessions. It is a form of worship, choosing an alternative to God. The person thinks, ‘I can’t be happy unless I got something bigger and better, something better than you, something that makes me look special, something that gives me a certain aura or dignity. Don’t talk to me about the service of the Lord, or doing things for him, or having spiritual priorities and concerns for holiness. My mind is on this objective.’ The beautiful, beautiful home, forever decorating, acquiring; forever want to look good and be good. That should not be in the church, says the apostle. ‘Or an idolater.’ There is deep compromise: people who continue to go to the idol temples, even though they have become saved, become Christians. By leaving the idol temple they might lose their jobs, and they were not prepared to pay the price, so they compromised. ‘Or a railer’, a deeply abusive person, somebody who crushes people and destroys them; a person who is forever the critic. ‘Or a drunkard, or an extortioner’, one who takes advantage of others and swindles them. ‘With such an one, no, not to eat.’ And it's those people who the apostle refers to, in the very last verse – he has put them in the singular – when he says, ‘Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.’ And that statement doesn't just apply to the incestuous sinner, it applies to all the sins listed in verse 11, those serious sins, any one of them. Nobody is ever expelled from the church for other than those reasons. Other offences come under discipline that does not include expulsion, and we have to be very careful about that. From time to time you hear, somebody has expelled a member for a sin, which was not on the 1 Corinthians 5:11 list. Well that would be wrong. It must be on the list for expulsion. A different form of reprimand or exhortation is called for, for anything else.