Fathers

1 Corinthians 5

Tap a verse to read the Fathers. Press and hold, then drag, to make a card.

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. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. 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, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 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. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: 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. 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. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

About · Privacy · Credits · Support VRSZ

What the Fathers say

1 Corinthians 5:3

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

"For I verily being absent in body, but present in spirit." Mark his energy. He suffers them not even to wait for his presence, nor to receive him first and then pass the sentence of binding: but as if on the point of expelling some contagion before that it have spread itself into the rest of the body, he hastens to restrain it. …

Homily on 1 Corinthians 15 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

Notice the indignation. He does not allow them to wait for his arrival and only then bind the fornicator, but hastens to stop the evil, the contagion, before it spreads to the entire body of the Church. He said "being present with you in spirit" in order to compel them to pronounce the judgment and at the same time to frighten them by the fact that he knows how they will judge there, and that the spirit, that is, the gift of discernment, will reveal to him everything they do. …

Commentary on 1 Corinthians ↗

Dionysius of Alexandria

Moreover, we did not withdraw from the visible assembling of ourselves together, with the Lord's presence. But those in the city I tried to gather together with all the greater zeal, as if I were present with them; for I was absent indeed in the body, as I said, but present in the spirit. And in Cephro indeed a considerable church sojourned with us, composed partly of the brethren who followed us from the city, and partly of those who joined us from Egypt. There, too, did God open to us a door for the word. …

Epistle X - Against Bishop Germanus ↗

Western Saints

Thomas Aquinas

Then when he says, For though absent in body, he supplies for their failure by pronouncing sentence against the sinner. In regard to this he does three things: first, he shows the authority of the judge; secondly, the method of judging; thirdly, the sentence of the judge (v. 5). As to the first he does two things: first, he shows the authority of the minister, i.e., himself. …

Commentary on 1 Corinthians ↗