A Moral Problem in the Church

5 ¹People are really saying that there is sexual sin among you. And it is such a bad kind of sexual sin that it does not happen even among those people that don't know God. People say that a man there has his father's wife. ²And still you are proud of yourselves! You should have been filled with sadness. And the man that did that sin should be put out of your group. ³My body is not there with you, but I am with you in spirit. And I have already judged the man who did that sin. I judged him the same as I would if I were really there. ⁴Come together in the name of our Lord Jesus. I will be with you in spirit, and you will have the power of our Lord Jesus with you. ⁵Then give this man to Satan (the Devil), so that his sinful self^*will be destroyed. Then his spirit can be saved on the day of the Lord. ⁶Your proud boasting is not good. You know the saying, "Just a little yeast* makes the whole batch of dough rise." ⁷Take out all the old yeast (sin), so that you will be a new batch of dough. You really are [Passover] bread* without yeast. Yes, Christ, our Passover lamb,* has [already] been killed. ⁸So let us eat our Passover meal, but not with [the bread that has] the old yeast. That old yeast is the yeast of sin and wrong doing. But let us eat the bread that has no yeast. This is the bread of goodness and truth. ⁹I wrote to you in my letter that you should not associate with people that sin sexually. ¹⁰But I did not mean that you should not associate with the sinful people of this world. Those people of the world do sin sexually, or they are selfish and cheat each other, or they worship idols (false gods). To get away from those people you would have to leave this world. ¹¹I am writing to tell you that the person you must not associate with is this: any person that calls himself a brother in Christ but sins sexually, or is selfish, or worships idols, or talks bad to people, or gets drunk, or cheats people. Don't even eat with a person like that. ^12-13It is not my business to judge those people that are not part of the church (group of believers). God will judge those people. But you must judge the people that are part of the church. The Scripture* says, "Take the evil person out of your group."*

sinful self Or, "body." Literally, "flesh." yeast Used here as a symbol of evil or bad influence. Passover bread The special bread without yeast that the Jews ate at their Passover meal. Paul means that Christians are free from sin like the Passover bread was free from yeast. Passover lamb Jesus was a sacrifice for his people, like a lamb killed for the Jewish Passover Feast. Scriptures Holy Writings--the Old Testament. "Take ... group" Quote from Deut. 22:21, 24.