1 IT is reported commonly that there is fornication ["πορνεια", which we translate fornication in this place, must be understood in its utmost latitude of meaning, as implying all kinds of impurity ] among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. [ So it does not say his mother. But rather his fathers wife. So the next question that begs to be asked is: Is his father dead or alive? if alive there is additional refenence in 2 Chorinthians 7:12. If he is dead then it was also considered a crime labeled as wickedness; but it was also one that was practiced fairly often. The words should be read, and such fornication as is not amongst the Gentiles, i.e., not allowed. ] .

2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, [ or in otherwords you have come to accept the wrong doings. Paul is clearly dismayed over their present condition. They have ignored his prior written admonitions to avoid immorality, as a result the people within the Church are tolerating gross immorality in the other Church members. This begs us to ask the question what is our responsibility when we see our fellow members sinning? We might also ask ourself in an effort to learn how did the Corinthian Church fall into such problems so quickly? Under the entry for Corinth Smith's Bible Dictionary states: Corinth was a place of great mental activity, as well as of commercial and manufacturing enterprise. Its wealth was so celebrated as to be proverbial; so were the vice and profligacy of its inhabitants. The worship of Venus here was attended with shameful licentiousness. And Coneybear and Howson in _The Life and Epistles of St. Paul_ state (p. 376-377): One evil at least, we know, prevailed extensively, and threatened to corrupt the whole Church of Corinth. This was nothing less than the addiction of many Corinthian Christians to those sins of impurity which they had practiced in the days of their Heathenism, and which disgraced their native city, even among the Heathen. We have before mentioned the peculiar licentiousness of manners which prevailed at Corinth. So notorious was this, that it had actually passed into the vocabulary of the Greek tongue; and the very word 'to Corinthianize,' meant 'to play the wanton;' [footnote: it is so used by Aristophanes] nay, the bad reputation of the city had become proverbial, and even in foreign languages, and is immortalized by the Latin poets [footnote: Hor. Ep. i. 17., 'Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum'] Such being the habits in which many of the Corinthian converts had been educated, we cannot wonder if it proved most difficult to root out immorality from the rising Church.] , that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.

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

4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

6  Your glorying is not good. [ You are triumphing in your superior knowledge, and busily employed in setting up and supporting your respective teachers, while the Church is left under the most scandalous corruptions - corruptions which threaten its very existence if not purged away. ] Know ye not [ are you not aware or has it not come to your attention ] that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? [If this leaven - the incestuous person, be permitted to remain among you; if his conduct be not exposed by the most formidable censure; the flood-gates of impurity will cause disruption in the church and a whole. ]

7  Purge out therefore the old leaven, [As it is the custom of the Jews previously to the passover to search their houses in the most diligent manner for the old leaven, and throw it out, sweeping every part clean. So the intruction is to search amoung yourselves and do the same. ] , that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; ["κακιας και πονηριας", wickedness, radical depravity, producing unrighteousness in the life. referring to the principles to which they conduct their lives. Do so without impurity. ] ; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:

10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. [What an awful picture of the general corruption of manners does this exhibit! The Christians at Corinth could not transact the ordinary affairs of life with any others than with fornicators, covetous persons, extortioners, railers, drunkards, and idolaters, because there were none others in the place! How necessary was Christianity in that city! ]

11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. [ While you may transact your worldly concerns with a person that knows not God, and makes no profession of Christianity, whatever his moral character may be; but you should not hang out with those who are scandalous in their conduct. What principles might Paul be trying to teach here? [ Avoid the appearance of evil; if you hang around them too much you will become just like them as you will begin to accept their customers. ] ]

12  For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? [ The term without, "τους εξω", signifies those who were not members of the Church. So it could read "Does it belong to me to pass sentence on those which are without - which are not members of the Church?"] do not ye judge them that are within?

13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.