1 Corinthians 5:1,2

The need for church discipline 1 Corinthians 5:1-2: There was a terrible sin that was destroying the church at Corinth. Paul said, "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." Paul said this sin was so evil that even the heathens would not allow it to happen or participate in it. The nature of the sin was horrible. A brother in Christ was living in sexual immorality with his own mother or his stepmother.

The man and the woman involved in the sin were to be blamed for their evil. Likewise the entire church was to be blamed for the complacency with which they had looked upon such a horrible sin. The sin of a brother committing fornication with his father wife was shocking to Paul. He was even more shocked by the attitude of the church toward this matter. He said, "Ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you." (1 Corinthians 5:2) Due to their own pride and spiritual indifference the church at Corinth had not removed this brother from its fellowship.