1 CORINTHIANS 5 — PURITY AND DISCIPLINE IN THE CHURCH

Having dealt with the church's divisions, Paul turns to a case of sexual immorality reported to him, probably by the same sources as before. A man was living with "his father's wife," almost certainly his stepmother, since the phrase avoids the word "mother" (Leviticus 18:8 and Deuteronomy 22:30 forbid it). The father may have been still living or divorced or dead; the text does not say. The church had done nothing, and even seemed proud. Some scholars suggest that the church's pride came from a distorted idea of grace or spiritual freedom, or from the patronage of a socially prominent man, whom the church was reluctant to offend. Paul's response is firm and structured: he declares his judgment, instructs the church to act, and grounds the command in the image of Passover. The passage is the New Testament's most extended teaching on church discipline, and it must be read together with 2 Corinthians 2:5–11 and 7:8–12, which many scholars see as describing the aftermath.

The command to discipline an unrepentant member illustrates that early Christianity held its members to a moral standard that was often higher than the surrounding culture's. It is difficult to explain the appeal of the movement if its ethical teaching were simply a rationalization of what people wanted to do. Early Christian writings from outside the New Testament show the same pattern: members were expected to avoid sexual immorality, greed, and violence, and those who did not were disciplined. The "reputation" of the church became a point of pride and of reproach in a society where many people felt the weight of moral confusion. The call for holiness, grounded in the cross, is a major reason Christianity attracted people who wanted more than the moral flexibility of pagan religion.