5:1  IT IS actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, impurity of a sort that is condemned {and} does not occur even among the heathen; for a man has [his own] father's wife.

5:2  And you are proud {and} arrogant! And you ought rather to mourn (bow in sorrow and in shame) until the person who has done this [shameful] thing is removed from your fellowship {and} your midst!

5:3  As for my attitude, though I am absent [from you] in body, I am present in spirit, and I have already decided {and} passed judgment, as if actually present,

5:4  In the name of the Lord Jesus {Christ,} on the man who has committed such a deed. When you and my own spirit are met together with the power of our Lord Jesus,

5:5  You are to deliver this man over to Satan for physical discipline [to destroy carnal lusts which prompted him to incest], that [his] spirit may [yet] be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

5:6  [About the condition of your church] your boasting is not good [indeed, it is most unseemly and entirely out of place]. Do you not know that [just] a little leaven will ferment the whole lump [of dough]?

5:7  Purge (clean out) the old leaven that you may be fresh (new) dough, still uncontaminated [as you are], for Christ, our Passover [Lamb], has been sacrificed.

5:8  Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with leaven of vice {and} malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened [bread] of purity (nobility, honor) {and} sincerity and [unadulterated] truth.

5:9  I wrote you in my [previous] letter not to associate [closely and habitually] with unchaste (impure) people--

5:10  Not [meaning of course that you must] altogether shun the immoral people of this world, or the greedy graspers and cheats {and} thieves or idolaters, since otherwise you would need to get out of the world {and} human society altogether!

5:11  But now I write to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of [Christian] brother if he is known to be guilty of immorality or greed, or is an idolater [whose soul is devoted to any object that usurps the place of God], or is a person with a foul tongue [railing, abusing, reviling, slandering], or is a drunkard or a swindler {or} a robber. [No] you must not so much as eat with such a person.

5:12  What [business] of mine is it {and} what right have I to judge outsiders? Is it not those inside [the church] upon whom you are to pass disciplinary judgment [passing censuring sentence on them as the facts require]?

5:13  God alone sits in judgment on those who are outside. Drive out that wicked one from among you [expel him from your church].