1 CORINTHIANS 5:6b–6:8
IN THE PREVIOUS SECTION of the essay (2.1) Paul cut the Gordian knot. He told the Corinthians to remove the offender from the fellowship of the church. Here he discusses head-on three aspects of this case of incest that must be dealt with. These are not “asides” in the sense of “irrelevant topics” that interrupt the flow of Paul’s argument. If Paul fails to discuss them, for the remainder of the essay the readers will mentally be saying “Yes, but…” and dismiss his argument. In brief these three are as follows:
1. You must consider the health of the church at large.
2. I wrote to you about dealings with evil people in the church, not in the world.
3. Do not dump this problem on the courts.
The text of the first of these roadblocks is displayed in figure 2.2(1).
Do you not know,
1. | 6b“A little leaven ferments all the dough”? |
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| 7Cleanse out the old leaven | OLD LEAVEN |
| that you may be new dough, as you really are unleavened. | New Dough |
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2. | For Christ, our paschal lamb, | CHRIST/LAMB |
| has been sacrificed. | Sacrificed |
| 8Let us, therefore, celebrate the feast, | Feast |
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3. | not with the old leaven, |
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| the leaven of malice and evil, | OLD LEAVEN |
| but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. | Unleavened Bread |
Figure 2.2(1). The first roadblock: “This is a private matter” (1 Cor 5:6b-8)
The rhetorical style is simple and well known. There are three cameos. The first and the third are a pair. While the center contains the encased parable of the Passover lamb.
The first roadblock is the pervasive attitude that says, “This is a personal matter. We should not be involved.” This view has great staying power. Today it has been expressed with the statement, “God is not interested in what happens in the bedroom.” A similar tension between the sin of one person and its effect on the community is discussed in Midrash Rabbah, Leviticus that reads,
It is said, Shall one man sin, and wilt Thou be wroth with all the congregation? (Num. xvi, 22). R. Simeon b. Yohai taught: This may be compared to the case of men on a ship, one of whom took a borer and began boring beneath his own place. His fellow travelers said to him: “What are you doing?” Said he to them: “What does that matter to you, am I not boring under my own place?” Said they: “Because the water will come up and flood the ship for us all.”1
The actions of an individual can profoundly affect the community, especially if that community is together in one ship! What was the reality of the situation in Corinth?
Many reconstructions of the case of incest in Paul’s day have been suggested. One likely option is that of a family in which the mother died. The father then married a younger women. There was an adult son living in the home who was probably closer in age to the new wife than the father. A physical relationship developed between the son and the young wife. Some in the congregation arrogantly asserted that this was no more than an expression of their new freedom in Christ. After all—were they not expected to “love one another”? Were they not living under grace rather than law? But Paul knew that if there were no boundaries for sexual behavior, any form of social bonding as a community would be impossible. If the man who was sleeping with his stepmother attended church, those present would be traumatized by his presence. Every man and woman in the congregation would wonder, Who is next? What is he thinking about? If we sit behind him, his presence will distract us from the worship. If we sit in front of him—is he looking at my wife?
Members will avoid meetings when they know he will be present. This is not a case of “negative attitudes should change.” If incest is accepted, what about polygamy with its inevitable demeaning of women? Pederasty and bestiality will no longer be unthinkable. Yes, they are “under grace” and no longer “under the law,” but what does that mean?
Paul chose the image of leaven in the dough (cameo 1). By means of that metaphor he was able to formulate one of the great New Testament parables for the atonement (cameo 2). Christ is “our Passover lamb.” Only here do we find this metaphor for the atonement. No doubt, Paul used it often, and it is worthy of much reflection.
The case of incest was not a private matter. The sexual conduct of each member added to or detracted from the ability of the congregation to gather around the Eucharistic table in “sincerity and truth” (cameo 3).
The second “roadblock” is displayed below:
1.a | 9I wrote you in my letter |
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b. | not to associate with immoral men; |
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c. | 10not meaning the immoral of this world, | I WROTE: |
d. | or the greedy or robbers or idolaters, | Not Meaning |
e. | since then you would need to go out of this world. |
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2. a. | 11But now I am writing to you2 |
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b. | not to associate with any one | I WROTE: |
c. | who bears the name of brother who is immoral | Meaning |
d. | or greedy, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard or robber— |
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e. | especially not to eat with such a person. |
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Figure 2.2(2). The second roadblock: The church and the world (1 Cor 5:9-11)
In this double cameo Paul uses step parallelism such as appears in Isaiah 28:14-18. The first four lines in 1 clearly match the first four lines in 2. The two final lines (1e, 2e) do not match in content but are parallel in that each is a conclusion.
Trying to sort out the timing and the content of Paul’s various letters to the Corinthians is beyond the scope of this study. But clearly there was a “previous letter” and the Corinthians seem to have misunderstood part of it. Paul knew that some were currently saying, “In his last letter Paul told us to separate ourselves from all gross sinners. If I follow Paul’s directive, I won’t be able to go to work!” Paul is trying to correct that misunderstanding.
Christians do not need to avoid contact with all “immoral people.” The list is instructive. In the world we will find immoral and greedy people along with robbers and idolaters. This is an open-ended list of sins. The word immoral covers a wide range of rejected sexual practices. The “greedy” are not just the people who eat too much but also those engaged in “conspicuous consumption.” For many in our day this has become a virtue and even a consuming passion. Robbers do not all come in the night. Some of them steal while seated at computers in office buildings. Idols are created, then and now, out of many things. Idol worshipers are alive and well in our day.
While living in the world, contact with such types is unavoidable. Important to this topic is the fact that the word translated “associate with” is a rare compound word (sun-ana-mignumi) that has to do with mixing up together, joining, fusing and blending.3 In the work-a-day secular/pagan world, then and now, such “mixing up together” is inevitable. Paul has no objection. When I mix with people in the office or shop who have no faith, the identity of my Christian community is not threatened. But “mixing up together” as the body of Christ, for Paul, was a very different matter. In a modern world that worships at the altar of inclusivity and sees all forms of inclusion as a “justice issue,” Paul’s admonition is deeply challenging.
The greedy and revilers are on the same list with idolaters and robbers. The admonition “not to eat” is best understood as referring to the celebration of the Eucharist, in that such celebrations were full meals. In short, Paul is saying that mixing with sinners in the pagan world is not the same as mixing with them in the body of Christ and at the Eucharist. The very identity of the church is at stake in the latter.
The third roadblock has to do with the courts [see fig. 2.2(3)].
This last section is composed of seven cameos. The first six are inverted. An extra cameo (7) appears at the end as a conclusion. Twice Paul has shown flexibility in the composition of apostolic homilies with seven cameos. There is a point of turning in cameo 5 and the concluding cameo is internally partially inverted.
5:12For what do I have to do with judging outsiders? |
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| Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? | YOU JUDGE |
| 13God judges those outside. |
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| “Drive out the wicked person from among you.” |
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2. | 6:1Does he presume, one of you, when he has a complaint against a brother, |
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| to go to law before the unrighteous instead of to the saints? | NOT COURTS |
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3. | 2Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? | NOT KNOW? |
| And if the world is to be judged by you, | Eternity |
| are you unworthy to try trivialities? |
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4. | 3Do you not know that we are to judge angels? | NOT KNOW? |
| How much more then everyday cases? | Eternity |
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5. | 4Therefore, if you have everyday cases, | NOT COURTS |
| why do you lay them before those despised by the church? |
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6. | 5I say this to your shame. |
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| Is there not among you anyone wise | YOU JUDGE |
| who is able to decide between members of the brotherhood, |
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| 6but brother goes to law against brother, and this before unbelievers. | |
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7. | 7Actually, it is utter defeat to you |
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| that you have cases against one another. |
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| Why not rather suffer wrong? | SUFFER WRONG |
| Why not rather be defrauded? | Don’t Wrong Others |
| 8But you wrong and defraud, even your own brothers. |
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Figure 2.2(3). Roadblock three: The courts can settle this (1 Cor 5:12–6:8)
It appears that someone in the community had gone to the courts regarding this case of incest, or at least was threatening to do so. It could have been the trapped girl, her angry brother or perhaps her humiliated husband. Perhaps members of the church had opted to raise a case. Paul begins this apostolic homily with a full head of steam. Once again we will look at each of the pairs of ideas in the six-stanza ring composition. The outer pair is displayed in figure 2.2(4).
1. | 5:12For what do I have to do with judging outsiders? |
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| Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? | YOU JUDGE |
| 13God judges those outside. |
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| “Drive out the wicked person from among you.” |
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6. | 6:5I say this to your shame. |
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| Is there not among you any one wise | YOU JUDGE |
| who is able to decide between members of the brotherhood, |
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| 6but brother goes to law against brother, and this before unbelievers. | |
Figure 2.2(4). Cameos 1 and 6 (1 Cor 5:12-13; 6:5-6)
Paul opens his discussion of the courts by telling his readers to forget those “outside.” God will take care of them. It is interesting that he does not say, “Leave them to the courts.” Human courts in any age can be a frail instrument, a broken reed. The final arbitrator of justice for Paul is God. The Corinthians are responsible for those “inside the church.” He then repeats his command to drive the wicked person out.
The matching stanza (6) is a polite way to say, “Shame on you!” In his gentle conclusion to the first essay (4:14) Paul specifically affirmed that he was not writing to make them ashamed. Now he is deliberately doing so. Dividing up into competing groups is one thing; condoning incest with arrogance is something else. Paul is direct and blunt as he in effect says, “You must come together, pass judgment and dismiss this person from your fellowship.”
In the matching cameo (6) Paul raises the question of “wisdom.” The Corinthians were proud of how “wise” they had become. In the opening of the letter he did not tell them they were “wise” but rather confirmed that they were “enriched in him with all speech and all knowledge.” Then in the hymn to the cross he located the wisdom of God in the cross and quoted God saying, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise” (1:19). At the end of the first essay his sarcasm was evident when he wrote, “We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ” (4:10). Now Paul nails them to the wall by asking, “Is there not among you any one wise?” The unspoken words that he leaves out are, “By going to the courts you are demonstrating in public that all of you are fools and thereby obliged to go to the courts to find a wise man to judge between you!” Are the unbelievers wiser than the believers in regard to this matter?
As Paul shames his readers and accuses them of asking the courts to wash the church’s dirty laundry in public, he is surely recalling the court case in Corinth in which he was the accused. The synagogue in Corinth tried to attack Paul by bringing a case against him before Gallio, the proconsul for the year (Acts 18:12). Gallio threw out the case and the Corinthian synagogue was publicly humiliated. “Did you learn nothing?” Paul asks indirectly. The current case will be much worse! The Roman court will throw the book at the man and the whole town will despise the church in the process. Having watched the fiasco of the previous case where Paul was involved, is the Corinthian church going to make the same mistake made by the synagogue? Unbelievable!
Paul’s sense of public shame in a honor-shame culture would naturally have been very strong. If the context was a dispute over land registration, that would be one thing. But when they were dealing with a man sleeping with his father’s wife—a public trial would be too horrible to contemplate. “For heavens sake,” Paul seems to be shouting, “are you trying to bring disgrace on the gospel itself? Don’t flaunt this case of incest! Furthermore don’t ignore it and don’t hide it—deal with it!”
These two matching cameos are so carefully constructed that if the four cameos in the center were missing and the reader was left with only cameos 1 and 6, no one would notice the omissions. The four-cameo center is found in figure 2.2(5).
2. | 1Does he presume, one of you, when he has a complaint against a brother, | |
| to go to law before the unrighteous | NOT COURTS |
| instead of to the saints? |
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3. | 2Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? | NOT KNOW? |
| And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try small claims?4 | Eternity |
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4. | 3Do you not know that we are to judge angels? | NOT KNOW? |
| How much more then matters pertaining to this life! | Eternity |
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5. | 4Therefore, if you have such cases, | NOT COURTS |
| why do you lay them before those |
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| who have no standing in the church?5 |
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Figure 2.2(5). Cameos 2-5 (1 Cor 6:1-4)
The rhetorical structure is clear and simple. The outer envelope asks the question, Why do you go to the courts rather than the church? Each of cameos 3 and 4 say, “You will ‘sit on the bench’ in the next world! Can’t you manage to do so in this world?” The connections between cameos 2 and 5 are so strong, and if 3 and 4 were missing, the reader would not observe any break in the flow of the passage.
Fee rightly points out that Paul is discussing cases where one Christian is going to court against another Christian. He is not arguing against the courts in general. With Thiselton I have opted to translate elakhiston as “small” cases, rather than the RSV “trivial” cases.6 When compared to “judging the world” they are indeed “small.”
We can be confident that Paul does not intend to imply hostility toward the Roman officials. The court in Corinth did well by him. They are simply not a part of the company of the saints and are thereby not qualified to judge cases that relate to the faith commitments of Christians.
Precisely what is behind Paul’s affirmation that “the saints will judge the world,” and its parallel “we are to judge angels” is debatable.7 Fee notes that this is “a common motif from Jewish apocalyptic eschatology.”8 What is clear is that Paul is again holding up the mirror of eternity. He did this already in his parable of the builder (3:10-17). In that text “the Day,” with its fire of judgment, was at the center of an apostolic homily. In regard to the question of using the local courts to settle this particular church dispute over incest, Paul is saying:
You think you can’t handle this very difficult problem of incest in the congregation. Look at yourselves and at this problem in the light of eternity. On the Day, you will participate with the Lord in his judgment of all things, including fallen angels. In the light of that perspective there is no question about your ability to deal with this case of incest. Take courage, be bold, you can do what must be done.
In 1:5 Paul (perhaps sarcastically) congratulates the Corinthians on their knowledge. In 4:10 (certainly sarcastically) he tells them, “You are wise in Christ.” They are now challenged with, “Is there not among you any one wise?”
The climax has to do with the matter of eternity in cameos 3 and 4, but the practical fallout appears in cameo 7 [see fig. 2.2(6)].
7. | 6:7Actually, it is utter defeat to you |
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| that you have cases against one another. |
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| Why not rather suffer wrong? | SUFFER WRONG |
| Why not rather be defrauded? | Don’t Wrong Others |
| 8But you wrong and defraud, |
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| even your own brothers. |
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Figure 2.2(6). Cameo 7 (1 Cor 6:7-8)
Paul is pointing out that when they leave such matters to the courts they have already lost. Regardless of what the courts decide, they are the losers. Contentious court cases take on a life of their own. People are drawn into them and at times act against “the angels of their better natures.”9 Paul seems to know that at least some of them have track records of turning to the courts. He tells them, “you wrong and defraud, even your own brothers.” Dealing with the incestuous man through the courts will neither redeem him nor heal the church.
Paul has now cleared away the brush. In summary, he has told his readers:
This is not a private matter. It affects the entire community. A case of incest in your midst is like yeast in bread dough.
Christ is our Passover lamb. Your celebrations of the Eucharist must be characterized by sincerity and truth.
In the world, you rub shoulders with gross sinners. Life in the church is a different matter.
Don’t dump this problem on the courts. You have quite enough wisdom to deal with this as a community. Take responsibility for yourselves; consider the perspective of eternity and act. Remember, you will assist the Lord on the day of judgment.
Paul is now ready to lay a theological foundation for sexual practice, which he does in the following sections of this essay.