1 Corinthians 5:5

To deliver - unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh. On this very obscure and much controverted passage it may be observed :

1. That it implies excommunication from the Church.

2. That it implies something more, the nature of which is not clearly known.

3. That casting the offender out of the Church involved casting him back into the heathen world, which Paul habitually conceives as under the power of Satan.

4. That Paul has in view the reformation of the offender : "that the spirit may be saved," etc.

This reformation is to be through affliction, disease, pain, or loss, which also he is wont to conceive as Satan's work. See 1 Thessalonians 2:18; 2 Corinthians 12:7. Compare Luke 13:16. Hence in delivering him over to these he uses the phrase deliver unto Satan. Compare 1 Timothy 1:20; 1 Timothy 1:8; 1 Timothy 1:8