I have written to you in the epistle not to mix with fornicators;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the avaricious and rapacious, or idolaters, since [then] ye should go out of the world.
Paul's line falls around the Christian's fellowship, not the Christian's contacts. Avoiding every immoral or greedy person alive would mean leaving the world — so what does "keep company" forbid, and where does the real boundary fall?
One writer weighs the obvious reading of Paul's words against the clause that closes the verse.
At first sight, "company with" and "keeping company with" look as if they mean the outside contact a man has with a worldly man in business of any kind. But the apostle sets that reading aside when he adds, "not of this world, for then you would have to go out of the world."
The same writer breaks the Greek word into its three parts.
The meaning and use of the word is much stronger than casual, outside contact. It is a compound word made from three words: SUN, together with; ANA, thoroughly; and MIGNUMI, mingled. Matthew 27:34 uses that last word for the sour wine mixed with gall given to our Lord on the cross. … To me the compound word expresses what we call "the intimacy of loving friends" more than anything else.
The ESV reads "not at all," where older versions read "not altogether." One commentator settles the sense from the last clause of the verse.
The best versions, ancient and modern, that I can access… seem to give the same sense as the Authorised Version. In my opinion that sense must follow from the last clause of the verse. What is "for then you must go out of the world," but proof of how useless it is to try to avoid all worldly bad men? The apostle goes on to show what the command not to keep company means. It refers to fellowship of any kind with guilty so-called brothers.
Many say that daily work makes some sharing in the world's ways unavoidable. One writer denies it, and points to this verse.
The Word does not allow the possibility of our living out of the world. On the contrary, it teaches us that we are left in it, but that we are kept from the evil (John 17:15; 1 Corinthians 5:10). … A true Christian works honestly at his trade to earn his bread, but his real aim is everlasting glory with Christ.
Another writer marks the difference between mixing with people and being tied to them.
It is a question, note, of a yoke. The believer is left in the world, and comes into contact with all sorts, as 1 Corinthians 5:9-10 shows. While mixing with all sorts he must be careful to avoid a yoke with any. The most intimate and permanent yoke the world knows is that of marriage. A believer may yoke himself with an unbeliever by a business partnership.
Leaving the world is the escape route many sincere people have tried, shutting themselves away in monasteries. One commentator warns that the attempt defeats itself.
People may follow that idea with walls of thick stone, or without them. The result is the same. If we turn God-ordained separation into monastic isolation, we will always end up breeding the very evils we are supposed to be avoiding, right inside our own seclusion. … The world does present, so to speak, infectious germs from outside. But the main trouble lies in ourselves — the weakness of the flesh within.
If not around the world, then where? The boundary runs through the Christian company itself.
The apostle urges Christians to exercise holy discipline and live a life of sincerity and truth. He shows that he means the Christian circle. To extend either of these to the man of the world would be unreal and impossible. … It is no business of the Christian to try to put the world right by judging its evil. God will do this in His own time.
The same sin carries a different weight when the sinner wears Christ's name.
The believer is not told to avoid the world's sexually immoral people, the greedy, swindlers and idolaters, since they are everywhere around. Their evil was not a direct dishonour to God. It was otherwise with one who was called a brother and was living in ongoing sin. This was a denial in practice of the Lord he claimed to serve.
- Word. "Keep company" comes from a word meaning thoroughly mingled together. It means the closeness of intimate friends, not daily business contact.
- World. The verse itself rules out avoiding every immoral person. You would have to leave the world to do it.
- Walls. Separation turned into seclusion breeds the very evils it flees. The trouble is the flesh within.
- Yoke. The believer mixes with all sorts but ties himself to none. Marriage and business partnership are the strongest ties.
- Within. The line falls inside the Christian company. A professing believer's sin dishonours the Lord he claims, while God Himself judges those outside.
But now I have written to you, if any one called brother be fornicator, or avaricious, or idolater, or abusive, or a drunkard, or rapacious, not to mix with [him]; with such a one not even to eat.
This verse turns from the world outside to people who share the Christian name, and the line it draws cuts through friendship as well as the assembly. Two questions follow: why is the standard stricter inside than outside, and how far does "not even to eat" reach?
These sins also fill the streets of any city. The sting is not in the sins but in who commits them.
God's people were to have no fellowship with him at all, not even to eat a common meal with him. But there is a necessary distinction here. The believer is not told to avoid the sexually immoral, the greedy, the swindlers and the idolaters of the world, for they are everywhere around. Their evil was not a direct dishonour to God, as it was in someone who was called a brother and lived a sinful life. His life denied the Lord he claimed to serve.
Treat the six words as a legal checklist of offences, and the results turn absurd.
Verse 11 is not a list of those who are to be put out. There is no such list. This would leave a thief or a murderer in communion. It can be hard to know a greedy man. Some cases are plain enough. But care with money in a family sits so close to greed that you can draw no line. If a case arises, and the assembly is spiritual, the Lord will make it clear.
Two of the six words are worth defining. One reaches past statues and images. The other, whom the ESV calls a "reviler," names a sin of the tongue that stands beside drunkenness and immorality.
An idolater is someone who gives divine honour to idols or images, or who gives excessive reverence or love to any human person or thing. A railer is an abusive person. He is quarrelsome, rude, noisy and bad-tempered, and he attacks others with vile slander and abusive language. As William Kelly has said, "A habit of evil speaking marks the man who practices it as a railer, and such a man is unfit for the company of saints, for God's assembly."
This verse guards the assembly, but it could also become a weapon. Commentators point out that its wording carries its own safeguard.
Even a true and holy judgment of evil can become a trap if it is not kept within proper limits. Our hearts are naturally deceptive, so it can turn into mere fault-finding and proud self-righteousness. The directions given here are worded to guard against this serious danger. They call for positive proof of sin: "if he is guilty of sexual immorality," and so on. The sin must be openly known and clearly established by enough reliable testimony. That is the ground for such judgment, whether for public discipline or for private contact. Without this safeguard, a groundless slander could gain the weight and authority of a divine command.
Many read the last clause as barring the offender from the Lord's Supper only. Commentators say it reaches lower than that, to the ordinary table.
If anyone called a brother is impure, or greedy, or idolatrous, or abusive, or a drunkard, or a swindler, we are not to mix with him: "not even to eat with such a one." He does not mean only that we should refuse him the Lord's Supper. We should not eat even the smallest meal with him. Avoid the corrupt or violent man who claims the name of Christ even in an everyday social act, not only at the most solemn moment of Christian worship.
Darby draws out how that works in daily life, including where the ties are closest:
Here in 1 Corinthians 5:11 it says, "not even to eat." I would not dine with such a one; I would give him food if he were hungry, but not eat with him. Take a wife whose husband is put out. It may seem awkward. But she is not keeping company with him by her own will; she is submitting to authority.
This looks cold. Commentators place the love on the other side of the line: a believer who walks with the world is harder to reach than an unbeliever.
With a worldly person who does not bear Christ's name, one at least thinks of speaking to him of grace. But it is hard to speak of grace to a Christian who knows his privileges and walks with the world, because he abuses it. Love does not consist in walking with such people, but in warning them. In the command "not even to eat with such a one" there is love.
The measure has an end in view, and it is not permanent exclusion.
We are to leave such a person alone and make him feel the seriousness of his sin, so that he may break down, repent, and be restored to the Lord.
- Name. The Christian name worn over a sinful course triggers the rule; the world outside is not the target.
- Sample. The six words are examples of wickedness, not a closed legal list; a spiritual assembly will see the case clearly when it comes.
- Proof. The case must rest on open, established evidence, so no rumour can borrow the authority of a divine command.
- Table. "Not even to eat" reaches past the Lord's Supper to the everyday meal, because shared food is the sign of fellowship.
- Return. The whole measure is love aimed at repentance; the separation lasts only until the person returns.