1 Corinthians 5:1-13

We have heard bad news about what is happening among you. Some of you are having sex in wrong ways. We have heard that one man is even having sex with his own father's wife! Even people who do not know God do not do things as bad as that! But, you are still proud of yourselves! Instead, you ought to be very sad and ashamed. You should have sent this man away from your group. My body is not there with you, but my spirit is with you. It seems like I am there with you. I have already decided that this man is guilty. So you should punish him for what he has done. You have the authority of the Lord Jesus to do this. When you meet together as a group, my spirit will be with you. The power of our Lord Jesus will also be with you. When you meet, put this man under Satan's authority. Satan will then destroy the man's body. Then God may save the man's spirit on the day when the Lord Jesus returns. You should not be so proud of yourselves. Think about what yeast does in bread. A very small bit of yeast changes the whole loaf of bread. The yeast in the flour is like one person who does wrong things. You must remove this old yeast from among you. Then you will be like a new loaf of bread. You are really like a loaf which has no yeast in it. You are pure, because Christ died as a sacrifice on our behalf. He is like the lamb that the Israelites killed for their Passover meal. As a result, we can have our own Passover festival. We must remove everything that is bad from among us. That is like what the Israelites did when they removed all the old yeast from their homes. Instead we live in a way that is pure and honest. It is like we are eating bread which has no yeast in it. I wrote a letter to you before now. I told you that you must not be friends with people who have sex in wrong ways. But I was not talking about people who do not know God. Those people have sex in wrong ways. They want many things to please themselves. They deceive people and they rob them. They worship idols. You could never keep away from all people like that, unless you left this world! When I wrote to you before, I was writing about people who say that they are believers. If they say that, but they have sex in a wrong way, do not be friends with them. It is the same if they want many things for themselves. They may worship idols. They may insult people. They may often get drunk. They may deceive people and rob them. If anyone in your own group does things like that, do not even agree to eat a meal with them. It is not right for me to decide about people who do not belong to the church group. God will judge those people. But you should decide what is right for the people who do belong to your group. Do what the Bible says: ‘Send the wicked person away from among yourselves.’