It Starts Small

5 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles—a man is sleeping with his father’s wife. ² And you are arrogant! Shouldn’t you be filled with grief and remove from your congregation the one who did this? ³ Even though I am absent in the body, I am present in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who has been doing such a thing. ⁴ When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus, and I am with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, ⁵ hand that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

1 Corinthians 5:1-5
(bold for emphasis)

In 1 Corinthians 5:1-5, Paul urges the church to take action. A man in the church is having a sexual relationship with his stepmother. Both Jews and Greeks held taboos on such relationships. However, the Corinthian Christians seem to permit it among themselves. They may believe that activities done by bodies are of no consequence to the spiritual life. They may have thought freedom in Christ put an end to all prohibitions of any sort. Whatever their reasoning, Paul disagrees.

Paul expresses his shock at the lack of accountability offered by the Corinthians to one another. He then sets out a ritual for excluding someone from the fellowship of the church. He almost certainly does not suggest or imply that the man should be killed. Both Greek and English have different words for flesh and body. “Flesh” in Paul’s usage refers to all that is of the old age. It signifies the time before God established a new creation. This happened through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth (see 2 Corinthians 5:16-19). In the ritual, the church acts together. They invoke the presence of the Holy Spirit. They also call to mind the authority of the apostle Paul. Then they act in the power of Jesus. The end goal is that the man may be saved. Paul believes this will happen in the soon-to-come Day of the Lord.

In the Roman Catholic Church, the rite of excommunication is considered a means to achieve reconciliation. This is also the case in other churches that practice excommunication. Ideally, the intention of all church discipline is to lead that one back to fellowship. Even barring someone from the Table of the Lord aims to clarify the distance someone has traveled from it. The rite does not always work this way in practice, of course. Sometimes it functions as a simple shunning, with no future reconciliation invited or sought. The hope, however, is not for exclusion or death. Instead, it is for reconciliation, life, and salvation, as 1 Corinthians 5:5 makes clear.

I believe we need to take a deeper, closer look at this passage.

“…to deliver such a one…” 

I looked at several different translations and found the following phrases:

…deliver such a one… NSAB
…hand this man over… NIV
…delivered them over… CSB

In Romans 1, we see Paul use this phrase, and he is using the Greek term paradounai. (“God gave them over…”).

²⁴ Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. ²⁵ They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.

²⁶ For this reason God delivered them over to disgraceful passions. Their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷ The men in the same way also left natural relations with women and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error.

²⁸ And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right.

Romans 1:24-28

In Romans 1, people rejected God, and so God “gave them over” to what they wanted. Similarly, Paul is giving this man over to Satan.

“…to Satan…” 

Remember, in biblical thinking, Satan does not live in hell. He lives on the Earth. Satan is “the ruler of this world”.

³¹ Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out.

John 12:31

³⁰ I will not talk with you much longer, because the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me.

John 14:30

He is also “the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience”.

² in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.

Ephesians 2:2

John writes that “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one”

¹⁹ We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.

1 John 5:19

Jesus prayed that we would be kept from the evil one, as we move out into the world.

¹⁵ I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.

John 17:15

Paul calls Satan “the god of this world [who] has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel”.

⁴ In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

2 Corinthians 4:4

To hand the man over to Satan, does not mean to send him to hell. Rather, it means to hand him over to the kosmos—the world-system controlled by Satan.

“…for the destruction of his flesh…” 

Paul never uses this expression (“destruction of his flesh”) to refer to physical death. Paul often contrasts “flesh” and “spirit” to refer to our inward spiritual battle.

¹⁷ For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want.

Galatians 5:17

The contrast between the “destruction of his flesh” and the “saving of his spirit” cannot refer to death and resurrection. The latter (pneuma) refers to an immaterial soul—not a physical body. Thus the terms are not parallel from a physical perspective. Why would Paul call for them not to eat with the man (1 Corinthians 5:11), if he was going to die?

By contrast, the “destruction of the flesh” refers to the breaking of the man’s pride and sin nature. As we study 1 Corinthians 7 and 8, we will dive deeper into this. Living in the world and being apart from God leads to a breakdown of the flesh. This breakdown represents the pride of a person. They start learning humility after trying to do things their way. They see the brokenness of a life apart from God’s will.

“…so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” 

Ultimately, the purpose of discipline is for redemption. This is not punishment. Paul uses the subjunctive mood (“may be saved”). He is not sure if the man’ pride would be broken, but this is his expressed goal and desire.

Jesus allowed Peter to be handed over to Satan. On the night he was betrayed:

³¹ “Simon, Simon, look out. Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. ³² But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And you, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

Luke 22:31-32

But this act of Christ was redemptive. It was not punitive. Peter did not go to hell. Instead, Peter went through suffering (of his own causing) by denying Christ. As a result, Peter’s pride and self-confidence were broken, and he was restored to a greater influence for Christ. Likewise, this man caught in immorality was eventually restored to fellowship (2 Corinthians 2:6-8).

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