NOT SO MUCH AS NAMED; except with abhorrence, as a rare crime. Members of the church who, in opposition to their profession and to all the light which they enjoy, live in sin, are sometimes suffered to commit crimes which are viewed with abhorrence even by heathen.... [ Continue Reading ]
PUFFED UP; by their supposed excellence.... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT PRESENT IN SPIRIT; present with you in spirit, judging and acting as though I were present with you in body.... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE NAME; by the authority. ANY MY SPIRIT; acting with you as if I were present. THE POWER OF OUR LORD; to sanction and give effect to their proceedings.... [ Continue Reading ]
DELIVER SUCH A ONE UNTO SATAN; exclude him from the visible kingdom of Christ, not to destroy him, but to bring him to repentance and thus save him. FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FLESH; many think that these words imply the infliction, along with the exclusion from the church, of some bodily evil thro... [ Continue Reading ]
YOUR GLORYING; in their supposed attainments. A LITTLE LEAVEN; one such wicked person suffered to remain would corrupt others and injure the whole.... [ Continue Reading ]
PURGE OUT-THE OLD LEAVEN; the apostle alludes to the Jewish custom of carefully putting away from their houses all leaven upon the approach of the feast of the passover. Leaven is in the Scriptures a common emblem for moral corruption. The old leaven which he exhorted them to put away was the remain... [ Continue Reading ]
KEEP THE FEAST; the spiritual passover provided for us in the gospel.... [ Continue Reading ]
IN AN EPISTLE; generally supposed to refer to an epistle not handed down to us. As the apostle delivered many inspired discourses which it did not please the Holy Ghost to have recorded, so he may have written letters which the wisdom of God did not judge needful to make the sacred volume complete.... [ Continue Reading ]
NOT ALTOGETHER; he did not command them wholly to abstain from intercourse with worldly men, for that would require them to retire from the world. It is not the will of God that good men should retire from the world to avoid its evils; nor is that the way to become more holy, useful, or happy. Their... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WHAT HAVE I TO DO; these words give the reason for the limitation expressed in verse 1 Corinthians 5:10; as much as to say, In regard to the fornicators of this world, I propose no strict rule of absolute separation from them; they may be left to God's judgment. THAT ARE WITHOUT; who do not bel... [ Continue Reading ]
If members of the church continue in immorality, their good, the good of the church, and the honor of Christ require that they should be excluded from it.... [ Continue Reading ]