Why Church Cannot Fellowship Sinners

1 Corinthians 5:1-8; 1-8. Apparently a member of the Church in Corinth had married his stepmother, either because she was a widow or had been separated from her prior husband. Such marriages were forbidden by the Mosaic code under penalty of excommunication. (Leviticus 18:6-8, 29.) Paul endorses the Mosaic prohibition, describes the intimacies resulting from such unions as fornication, condemns his Corinthian brethren for winking at the offense, and directs the excommunication of the offender. If the sinner were left in the Church, Paul reasons, his influence, as leaven, would spread throughout the whole Church. The Church must, therefore, purge out this old leaven of wickedness and replace it with a new influence or leaven of righteousness.

1 Corinthians 5:5; 5. Less than twenty verses farther on in this same epistle, Paul is going to say, in language that cannot be gainsayed, that fornicators cannot inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11) But in this case he holds out a hope of salvation on certain conditions. Why? This is perhaps the most deep, difficult, and little known doctrine in the Church, one that is wholly unknown in the world. From latter-day revelation we learn that following celestial marriage, a man may make his calling and election sure; that is, he may progress in righteousness until he is sealed up unto eternal life and his exaltation is guaranteed. Such is the state to which Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joseph Smith, Paul himself, and others attained. A person in this state is subject to the law to which Paul here merely alludes, but which is given in more amplified form in the Doctrine and Covenants in these words: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man marry a wife according to my word, [and if their calling and election is made sure], and they are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, according to mine appointment, and he or she shall commit any sin or transgression of the new and everlasting covenant whatever, and all manner of blasphemies, and if they commit no murder wherein they shed innocent blood, yet they shall come forth in the first resurrection, and enter into their exaltation; but they shall be destroyed in the flesh, and shall be delivered unto the buffetings of Satan unto the day of redemption, saith the Lord God." (D&C 132:26.)

1 Corinthians 5:5; Calling and election sure] See 2 Peter 1:1-19.

1 Corinthians 5:12-13; 1 Corinthians 5:6-8; 6-8, 12-13. When persons who should be excommunicated remain in the Church, they hold the Church up to ill-repute, hinder the missionary cause, and, by their bad example, influence other church members to walk in unrighteousness. The Lord's plan calls for their severance from the Church. (D&C 64:12-14.)

1 Corinthians 5:9-13; 9-13. Paul wrote the Corinthians, in an epistle since lost and unknown, not to company with fornicators. Here he qualifies his previous command. What he intended to forbid was the fellowshipping of such persons in the Church. They should be handled for their membership, unless of course they repent. Now also he extends his instructions to include members of the Church who are covetous, idolaters, railers, drunkards, or extortioners. Manifestly, he explains, to avoid all such who are in the world, would require us to "go out of the world" itself.