Them that are outside God judges: Clean out the old leaven

 

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people; I did not at all mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the greedy and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to leave the world.

 But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is a sexually immoral person, or a greedy person, or an idolater, or is verbally abusive, or habitually drunk, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a person. For what business of mine is it to judge outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. 1 Cor. 5:9–13 NASB.2020 cf. (Rom. 13:3, 4)

The punishments that the church applies in this connection are purely spiritual. They do not and may not consist in fines, corporal punishment, branding, torture, imprisonment, deprivation of honor, banishment, the death penalty, and so forth, as Rome claims; nor in the dissolution of family, civil, and political connections, as the Anabaptists taught; nor in the exclusion from the public worship services, a remedy applied by the Christian church in the early years.

 For the weapons of the church are not worldly but spiritual and therefore powerful before God (2 Cor. 10:4). (Herman Bavinck, John Bolt, and John Vriend, Reformed Dogmatics: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation, vol. 4 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 426.) 

For what business is it of mine to judge those who are outside (the church)? The statement as it stands is clear enough, and is consistent with Paul’s explanation that he does not require the church to isolate itself from non-Christians of bad character.

 Rather, judgement is God’s prerogative, and when men undertake to sit in judgement on their neighbors they are prone to fall into their neighbors' sins (cf. Rom. 2:1; 14:4, 10, 13). Difficulty arises when this verse is compared with 1 Cor. 6:2. There however the reference is to judgement at the time of the end; here Paul is dealing not with final judgement but with discipline, which by definition is limited to the community.

What then of the outsiders? Those who are outside (such as, apparently, the woman of verse 1 Cor.5:1, who is not judged in this chapter) God will judge, presumably, that is, at the last day, whose verdict is not to be anticipated by men, and may indeed bring to the orthodox Christian a number of surprises (1 Cor.9:27; 10:12; Matt. 7:22 f.). This is why no Christian, not even an apostle, has the right to judge those who stand outside the organized framework of the church. 

The verb translated will judge could be taken as a present tense, judges; the only difference between the two tenses (in the third person singular) lies in the accents, and these are not used in the oldest New Testament MSS. (κρινεῖ, future; κρίνει, present; the same problem occurs at Rom. 3:6).

 It is possible to decide between the tenses only on the basis of the general sense of the passage. It makes good sense, and is true, to say that God judges the world here and now (‘The verb is certainly to be accented as a present: it states the normal attribute of God’—Robertson-Plummer), but it makes perhaps better, and more Pauline (cf. Rom. 2:5; cf. Acts 17:31), sense to say that he will judge it hereafter.(C. K. Barrett, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, Black’s New Testament Commentary (London: Continuum, 1968), 132,133.)

Them that are without God judges. The Greek present tense of this verb fits well with Paul’s thought in Romans 1:18, “For the wrath of God is being revealed (presently) from heaven against all ungodliness.” There is a vitally important truth to be observed here. It is true, as the Apostle John said, that “the whole world lieth in wickedness” (1 Jn. 5:19).

They are “free from righteousness” (Rom.6:20), not that they have no moral obligation to obey God, but that righteousness has no effective influence in ruling their lives. Even the effect of God’s law is only to provoke them to more sin (Rom. 7:5, 7–13). God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. Rom.5:20; For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. 1 Co 15:56.NLT

Looking back on the law-covenant, the New Testament apostles reveal that it functions to intensify sin and prepare God’s people for his righteousness to come apart from the law, in a man “from heaven” (Rom. 3:21; 5:20–21; 7:13; 1 Cor. 15:47–49; Gal. 4:4).(Stephen J. Wellum, God the Son Incarnate: The Doctrine of Christ, ed. John S. Feinberg, Foundations of Evangelical Theology Series (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016), 139–140.)

John Murray commented, “To be ‘under sin’ is to be under the dominion of sin.” Believers may rejoice to hear that “sin shall not have dominion over you,” but those outside of Christ have no such freedom (Rom. 6:14, 17). Sin is their lord and master. But it will not do to simply curse the darkness.

 It is the task of the believer to proclaim the positive truth of the gospel. The saints are obligated to be faithful stewards; as for the world, God will take care of it. 

(Edward E. Hindson and Woodrow Michael Kroll, eds., KJV Bible Commentary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1994), 2293.)

Paul’s understanding of the church belongs to this scriptural tradition. “No man is an island,” as the poet John Donne perceived; all in Christ’s church are bound together closely, responsible for one another, and profoundly affected by one another’s actions.

 Paul pictures this reality by using the proverbial image (cf. Gal. 5:9; Mark 8:15; Matt. 16:6, 11–12; Luke 12:1) of the corrupting influence of leaven: “Do you not know that a little leaven [not ‘yeast,’ as in NRSV and NIV] leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump” (1 Cor.5:6–7). 

The image provides an explanation for Paul’s directive of expulsion: Allowing the offender to remain in the church will contaminate the whole community, which is conceived as a single lump of dough. When Paul says to clean out the old leaven, he is not telling the individuals at Corinth to clean up their individual lives; rather, he is repeating in symbolic language the instruction of verses 1 Cor. 5:2–5 to purify the community by expelling the offender.

This symbolic language is drawn from the heart of Israel’s story, the celebration of the Passover commemorating the Israelites’ liberation from bondage in the land of Egypt. Paul assumes not only that his Corinthian readers will understand this symbolism but also that they will identify metaphorically with Israel.

 Christ, as the Passover lamb, has already been sacrificed (cf. Exod. 12:3–7), so the time is at hand for the Corinthians to carry out the other major part of the festival, searching out and removing all “leaven” (symbolizing the wrongdoer) from their household (Exod. 12:15). cp. Matt. 16:11,12

It is important to be clear about the function of the Passover lamb. This is not a sacrifice to atone for sin; rather, it symbolizes the setting apart of Israel as a distinct people delivered from slavery by God’s power. “And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this observance?’ you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses’ ” (Exod. 12:26–27). cp. Rev. 18:4

 The blood of the lamb on the doorposts of the houses marks Israel out as a distinct people under God’s protection, spared from the power of destruction at work in the world outside.

 In the same way, Paul’s metaphor suggests, the blood of Christ marks the Corinthians as a distinct people.(Richard B. Hays, First Corinthians, Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1997), 83.)

But the true sense of the Hebrew substantive is plainly indicated in Exod. 12:27; and the best authorities are agreed that פָּסַח  never expresses “passing through,” but that its primary meaning is “leaping over.” Hence the verb is regularly used with the preposition over עַל.

 But since, when we jump or step over anything, we do not tread upon it, the word has a secondary meaning “to spare,” or “to show mercy” (comp. Isa. 31:5 with Exod. 12:27). The Sept. has therefore used σκεπάζειν-And I will observe the blood, and I will shelter you,... in Exod. 12:13; and Onkelos has rendered זֶבַח־פֶּסַח, “the sacrifice of the Passover,” by דְּבַח חֲיָס, “the sacrifice of mercy.” (John M’Clintock and James Strong, “Passover,” Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature (New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1894), 734.)

Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ Mt 9:13
For I desire mercy and not sacrifice,
And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Hos. 6:6 NKJV

Although the older Protestants opposed the idea that the Passover was a sacrificial festival, the expression “the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover” (Ex. 12:27), as well as many other passages, place it in the category of sacrificial repasts-feast. Indeed, in Num. 9:7, it is expressly termed an offering to God. The sacrificial element is negligible in Egypt, probably because of the absence of priests and altars.

 Later the blood was poured upon the altar and the fat was burned (Ex. 23:18, 34:25). Essentially the Passover does not belong to the expiatory sacrifices but rather to that unique kind centering in the meal-time and representing communion of God and man. In form it is a household and family offering.

Samuel Macauley Jackson, ed., The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (New York; London: Funk & Wagnalls, 1908–1914), 370.

And so the Paschal lamb becomes a type of Christ, and the Paschal meal of the Christian Eucharist. Christ was the true Paschal Lamb (1 Cor. 5:7), who gathered up into Himself, and realized in a higher, more spiritual sense, the associations of redemption and deliverance—

no longer, however, from the bondage of Egypt, but from the thralldom of sin—of which the Passover, for so many centuries, had been the expression.

 And in the Eucharistic feast, not only is the sense of unity between Christians forcibly expressed (1 Cor. 10:17), but in it the faithful believer partakes of the Body and Blood of the true Paschal Lamb, he enters anew into vital union with God, he appropriates to himself the atoning efficacy of Christ’s blood, shed for him and for all mankind, and he nourishes his spiritual life with Divine grace and strength.

S. R. Driver, The Book of Exodus in the Revised Version with Introduction and Notes, The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911), 412.

By faith Moses kept the first Passover (Heb. 11:28) and the firstborn of Israel were preserved from death

Eugene E. Carpenter and Philip W. Comfort, Holman Treasury of Key Bible Words: 200 Greek and 200 Hebrew Words Defined and Explained (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 134.

He used it as a signal of God’s sparing Israel, and passing over their houses by his angel, Exod. 12:23; and he saw in it the true blood of sprinkling, of Christ our Passover, which saveth souls from the destroyer, John 5:46, and 

brings them out of the Egypt of this world into the heavenly Canaan.

Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible, vol. 3 (New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1853), 865.

The blood shall be for a token or sign to you upon [the doorposts of] the houses where you are, [that] when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. [I Cor. 5:7; Heb. 11:28.] Ex 12:13  The Amplified Bible (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1987)

A sign for you may seem strange, for it was to be a distinguishing mark for Yahweh to see. Ex.12:13 TEV omits for you (as do NAB, JB), but REB uses it to begin the verse: “As for you, the blood will be a sign.” Durham interprets this to mean “for your benefit” and translates “The blood is to be for your protection.” (Noel D. Osborn and Howard A. Hatton, A Handbook on Exodus, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1999), 278.) 

It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the animal outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones. Ex 12:46

The sacrifice of the animal atones for the sin of the people, the blood sprinkled on the doorframes purifies those within, and the eating of the sacrificial meat sanctifies those who consume it. By participating in the Passover ritual the people consecrate themselves as a nation holy to God (cf. Ex 19:6; Deut 14:21; 26:19; 1 Pet 2:5; Rev 1:6; 5:10 ) Leland Ryken et al., Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 629.