Lessons #141 and 142
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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Specific case of sexual immorality in Corinth (1 Cor 5:1-8)
1It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? 3 Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. 4 When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5 hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord. 6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
There is no grammatical connective between this present section and the previous section of the fourth chapter of 1 Corinthians so that there is the tendency to regard this chapter as purely a new section that has no connection with what preceded it. True, the apostle has moved to another topic in this chapter, but we should not think that there is a disconnect between what the apostle wrote here and the preceding section although he has moved to a new subject matter. You see, the previous section, that is, 1 Corinthians 4:14-21 focused on Apostle Paul’s concern for the Corinthians as evident in the reasons for some of the things he had so far written in this epistle, in his plan to visit them, and in the choices of the manner of dealing with them when he visits that he placed before them. From his concern, we stated that pastors should show their concern for members of their congregations in what they communicate, in discouraging arrogance and encouraging demonstration of God’s power, and in their manner of guidance of believers. Part of showing concern for a congregation is ensuring that anything that would pollute it should be avoided. Thus, Apostle Paul in this chapter is still concerned with the church in Corinth only this time his focus is on something that has indeed polluted the local congregation in Corinth.
The fifth chapter of 1 Corinthians is concerned with the subject of sexual immorality in the local church of Corinth. It is probably the case that many believers in Corinth did not see the sinfulness of sexual immorality because of their pagan background where sexual activity was considered part of worship of the pagan gods. This would not be true of their members who were of Jewish descent that had the OT Scripture where it is clear sexual immorality is prohibited in the law since sexual sins draw death penalty. Thus, the cultural background of those who become believers has the tendency of affecting their conduct until they are truly grounded in the word of God. This point is evident in our society today where people are tolerant of sexual sin so that young converts do not know what a serious thing it is to be sexually immoral. When I make this kind of charge, I am not concerned with unbelievers but believers who do not see the seriousness of sexual immorality as evident in the fact that we often look the other way with regards to this matter. Most believing parents do nothing to prevent sexual immorality in their children because they allow them to do what everyone is doing. They expose them to situations that they know the result would be sexual activity and pretend that they do not know that such would take place, or they prefer not to know because they themselves do not have a moral compass that is in keeping with God’s word.
Be that as it may, the church in Corinth typifies majority of the modern local congregations, especially in the West where there is much tolerance for sexual immorality. Nonetheless, the failure of the local church in Corinth was the basis for the Holy Spirit to teach the church of Christ what should be their attitude towards sexual immorality among its members if the local church is to maintain spiritual purity. Thus, in this fifth chapter of 1 Corinthians, the apostle dealt with specific case of sexual immorality in the church of Corinth and then provided general instructions regarding the local church’s treatment of sexually immoral persons. The failure of most local congregations regarding the instructions of this passage is not so much that of ignorance of the Scripture although that is part of it but the unwillingness to be obedient to God’s word. The Holy Spirit wants the church to hear God’s will regarding sexual immorality and to act accordingly. Consequently, there is a message the Holy Spirit through the Apostle gave to the church that covers the concern of the fifth chapter of 1 Corinthians. It is this message that we want each of you to hear. The message is this: A local congregation of believers in Christ must not tolerate sexual immorality among its members and so must discipline anyone involved in it. We will expound on this message by first considering the specific case of sexual immorality, namely, incest, in the local church in Corinth described in the first eight verses of the fifth chapter of 1 Corinthians and then we will consider the general instruction regarding sexually immoral persons that is given in 1 Corinthians 5:9-13. As we indicated, we begin by considering the specific case of sexual immorality, that is, incest, in the local church of Corinth that would enable us to understand our responsibility toward ensuring the purity of the local church of Christ that we belong, which is not tolerating sexual immorality in our local churches.
The reason we indicated that it is possible that there could be a sexual relationship a member has with another that is talked about but which members may not recognize its sinfulness is because of the first sentence of 1 Corinthians 5:1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you. This sentence is concerned with sexual immorality that is of a common knowledge and talked about by members of the local church in Corinth. It may not appear that the point we have made is valid, so we need to examine two words used in this first sentence that supports our interpretation.
A first word is the adverb “actually” that is translated from a Greek adverb (holōs) that is used as a marker of highest degree on a scale of extent hence means “completely, wholly, everywhere, at all,” as it is used in the prohibition of swearing by the Lord Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount where it is translated “at all” in Matthew 5:34:
But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne;
It is with the meaning “completely” that the word is used in 1 Corinthians 6:7:
The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?
The word may pertain to being really so, with the implication of being generally known and so means “actually, in fact.” It is in this sense that the word is used in our passage of 1 Corinthians 5:1 so that, as someone suggest, it may mean “absolutely, without any qualification or doubt.”
A second word that indicates that the first sentence of 1 Corinthians 5:1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you is concerned with sexual immorality that is of a common knowledge and talked about by members of the local church in Corinth is the word “reported.” It is translated from a Greek verb (akouō) that literally means “to hear”, that is, to have or exercise the faculty of hearing, as it is used of those who were recipients of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 13:16:
But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.
The word may mean “to receive news or information about something, to learn about something” as that is the sense of the word in Apostle Paul’s thanksgiving in his prayer on behalf of the Colossians, as we read in Colossians 1:4:
because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints—
It is true the word is translated “heard” in this verse, but the sense is that the apostle learned about their faith. The word may mean “to give careful attention to,” that is, “to listen to, to heed” as the word is used in the instruction of God the Father to the disciples that were on the Mount of the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ, as stated in Matthew 17:5:
While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
The instruction to the disciples to listen to Jesus is tantamount “to obey” Him. It is because our Greek word means “to obey” that the translators of the NIV used the meaning “to obey” to translate it in the response of Apostles Peter and John to the Jewish authorities who wanted them to stop preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, as recorded in Acts 4:19:
But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God.
The word may mean “to understand” as it is used in Apostle Paul’s treatment of speaking in tongues in 1 Corinthians 14:2:
For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit.
The clause no one understands him is literally no one hears. Clearly, the other worshippers hear the one who speaks in tongue or a different language, but they simply do not understand, which is similar to when you hear someone who speaks a foreign language. You certainly hear the person; you simply do not understand what the individual is saying. Thus, the meaning “to understand” is that intended in 1 Corinthians 14:2. In our passage of study, the sense of the word is “to be heard.” Thus, the Greek word used is more literally translated it is being heard so that the use of our Greek word is to say that something “is the talk of the town” or that the subject involved is a matter of general knowledge. Thus, our interpretation that the first sentence of 1 Corinthians 5:1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you is concerned with sexual immorality that is of a common knowledge and talked about by members is confirmed. It is because of the common knowledge of the subject matter that someone reported or brought the matter to the attention of Apostle Paul. The apostle did not say who brought the subject matter to his attention, but it must be one that is not smitten by the ignorance of the sinfulness of the subject matter at hand. This unidentified source is probably the same person that reported to the apostle the division in the church, as the apostle already stated in 1 Corinthians 1:11:
My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you.
The subject matter that is being talked about in Corinth or that is a common knowledge concerns sexual immorality as in the clause of 1 Corinthians 5:1 that there is sexual immorality among you. The expression “sexual immorality” is translated from a Greek word (porneia) that refers to unlawful sexual intercourse hence means “prostitution, unchastity, fornication.” It is used of the sexual unfaithfulness of a married woman in Matthew 5:32:
But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.
The word is used in connection with illegitimate children, that is, bastards in John 8:41:
You are doing the things your own father does.” “We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”
The sentence We are not illegitimate children is literally We were not born of fornication. The word is used with the meaning “sexual immorality” as part of what Gentile Christians were to avoid in Acts 15:29:
You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.
The Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul indicated that it is a sin that should not even be hinted among Christians in Ephesians 5:3:
But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 5:1, the word refers to sexual acts that are morally objectionable hence means “sexual immorality.”
The sexual immorality involved is not common, so to say, that the apostle explained it as not usually tolerated by unbelievers as in the clause of 1 Corinthians 5:1 and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans. The word “occur” in the NIV is not in the Greek since there is no verb used in the Greek. Consequently, our English versions have supplied verbs to make sense of the Greek. The translators of the NIV used “occur” and the NASB used “exist.” Such translation may be misleading as it will imply that what the apostle described is not practiced by unbelievers. The more realistic situation is that what is described here as sexual immorality is not tolerated even by the unbelievers so that a better word to use is “tolerate” as reflected in the ESV and the REB.
There is a sense that this clause and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans is an explanation since literally the Greek reads and such a kind (of) sexual immorality which (is) not even among Gentiles. Our assertion that the clause is probably an explanation related to sexual immorality previously mentioned is because of the conjunction “and” used in our English versions. The word “and” is translated from a Greek word (kai) that is often translated “and” in the English translations of the NT. However, the word has several other usages. It may be used as a marker to introduce a result that comes from what precedes the clause that follows it and so it may be translated “and then, and so.” The word may be used as a marker to indicate an additive relation of a clause that is not of equal significance with the clause or sentence which precedes it and so means “also, likewise.” It may be used as a marker of explanation of what precedes it in which case it may be translated “that is, namely.” Another usage is as a marker of emphasizing a fact as surprising or unexpected or noteworthy so may be translated “and yet, and in spite of that, nevertheless.” In our passage, it is used either as a marker of explanation or a marker of emphasizing something surprising. It is probably that the apostle had both in mind. In effect, although the apostle was surprised with what he heard that was taking place in Corinth, he nonetheless explained it as something that is not even tolerated among unbelievers.
I have been using the word “unbelievers” when the clause of 1 Corinthians 5:1 and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans that we are considering used the word “pagans” so you may wonder why I am not using the word pagans. There is nothing wrong with the word “pagans” but the word “unbelievers” is more communicative in our passage since the literal Greek used the word “Gentiles.”
The word “pagans” of the NIV is translated from a Greek noun (ethnos) that refers to a group of persons united by kinship, culture, and common traditions and so means “nation, people.” It is in the sense of “nation” that the word is used in the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19:
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
When the Greek word is used in the plural with the definite article, it refers to people groups foreign to a specific people group. Thus, the word was used in Greek for foreigners. However, in the NT it is used in two ways. First, it is used for those who do not belong to groups professing faith in the God of Israel so means “Gentiles, pagans.” It is in this sense that the word is used in describing the report of Paul and Barnabas regarding their first missionary journey in Acts 15:3:
The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the brothers very glad.
The word is also used to describe non-Israelite Christian, as in Romans 16:4:
They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 5:1, the word, however, means “Gentile,” that is, person who is neither a Jew nor a Christian so that the fact the word is in the plural in our passage means that the word is used to describe unbelievers as those who do not worship the true God.
The kind of sexual immorality in view is explained in the last sentence of 1 Corinthians 5:1: A man has his father’s wife. It is difficult to understand what the apostle meant in this sentence that appears straightforward because of the words used. I am saying that it is difficult to understand what it is the apostle described as a kind of sexual immorality not tolerated among unbelievers. This notwithstanding, we need to examine the sentence to provide an adequate explanation of what the apostle meant. To do this, there are three key words we need to consider as we try to understand what the apostle meant. The first key word is “father” that is translated from a Greek word (patēr) that may mean the male parent as the immediate biological ancestor, that is, father, as it is used to describe Joseph’s relationship with Jacob in Acts 7:14:
After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all.
In the plural, it may refer to male and female parents together as the Greek word is used to describe Moses’ father and mother in Hebrews 11:23:
By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
The word may mean “forefather, ancestor, progenitor”, that is, one from whom one is descended and generally at least several generations removed as the word is used to describe Israel’s forefathers with whom the Lord made a covenant when they came out of Egypt, as described in Hebrews 8:9:
It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord.
It is in this sense of the word that the Israelites of the time of the Lord Jesus called Abraham their father in John 8:39:
“Abraham is our father,” they answered. “If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do the things Abraham did.
The word may mean “father” in the sense of one who is responsible for having guided another into faith or into a particular pattern of behavior; hence, means “spiritual father.” It is in the negative sense of guiding one to a particular pattern of behavior that the word is used for Lord Jesus’ description of the devil as father of those Jews who opposed Him during His earthly ministry, as stated in John 8:44:
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
The word may mean “father” as a title of respectful address, as in Matthew 23:9:
And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.
By the way, the prohibition of the Lord here is not against the word “father” to address one’s biological father; instead, he meant one should not use the word “father” as a title of honor in addressing someone of a superior rank so that what Jesus prohibits is using the honorary title “father” to address some teacher or leader in the spirit of superiority. This means that all those religious leaders that expect others to call them “father” are in violation of our Lord’s instruction. The Greek word may mean “father” in the sense of a revered, deceased person(s) with whom one shares beliefs or traditions. Hence, the word may mean “father” as an “archetype” or “prototype” of a group or the founder of a class of persons as the word is used to describe Abraham as the father of those who believe in the Lord regardless of their circumcision status in Romans 4:11:
And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them.
The word may mean “Father” as a description of the supreme deity, who is responsible for the origin and care of all that exists. Thus, God as the originator and ruler is called “Father of lights” in James 1:17:
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
It is under this meaning that the word is used to describe the first member of the Godhead, as it is used by Apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:16:
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope,
Thus, we see that the Greek word translated “father” has a range of meanings. However, in our passage of 1 Corinthians 5:1, it means “father” as a male parent.
A second key word in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 5:1 A man has his father’s wife is “wife.” This may not appear to be a key word until one recognizes that the phrase his father’s wife is literally a woman of the father that could be subject to different interpretations such as a woman that is born by the father implying a stepsister. That aside, the word “wife” is translated from a Greek word (gynē) that may mean “woman” as an adult female person, as the word is used in the instruction of Apostle Paul in the passage he indicated a woman should not be a teacher of the word but, like men also, should learn in silence in 1 Timothy 2:11:
A woman should learn in quietness and full submission.
The word may mean “wife,” that is, a married woman, as in the command of Ephesians 5:22:
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
The word may refer to “a bride,” that is, a newly married woman as that is the sense the word is used by the angel that announced the virgin pregnancy to Joseph to describe Mary who is betrothed to him in Matthew 1:20:
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
It is in the sense of “a wife” that the word is used in 1 Corinthians 5:1.
A third key word in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 5:1 A man has his father’s wife is “has.” It is translated from a Greek verb (echō) that may mean “to own, possess, have” as Apostle Paul used it in one of those paradoxes that we find in his epistle where our Greek word is translated “having” in 2 Corinthians 6:10:
sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
The word may mean “to have” in the sense of to be in charge as it is used to describe Judas Iscariot as being in charge of the money of Jesus Christ and His disciples in John 13:29:
Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the Feast, or to give something to the poor.
The word may mean “to be able, can” in the sense of being in a position to do something. It is in this sense that the word is used to describe those who wanted to trap Jesus with a question as stated in John 8:6:
They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.
The verbal phrase in order to have a basis for accusing him may be translated that they might be able to accuse him. The word when used of persons may mean “to be (in a certain way)” as it is used in Paul’s statement to Barnabas of wanting to return to those to whom they preached the gospel in their first missionary journey, as recorded in Acts 15:36:
Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.”
Our Greek word is here translated are doing. The word may mean “to have” in the sense of “to experience something” so it is used to experience trouble or persecutions in the words of the Lord to the church in Smyrna in Revelation 2:10:
Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.
The experience associated with our word may be that of enjoying something or privilege as it is used to describe the enjoyment of peace in God through Christ in Romans 5:1:
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
The clause we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ may be understood to mean that we enjoy peace with God through the Lord Jesus. The word may mean “to be closely associated” hence may mean “to hold fast, to cling to” as the word is used with the meaning “accompany” in relation to salvation in Hebrews 6:9:
Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case—things that accompany salvation.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 5:1, the word means “to have a personal or familial relationship with someone” only that the sense is that of having illicit relationship with a stepmother.
We have considered the key words in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 5:1 A man has his father’s wife or literally that someone has (his) father’s wife since the word “man” does not appear in the Greek text although that is implied by the Greek indefinite pronoun (tina) translated someone in our literal translation. The problem is what it really means for a man to have his father’s wife? There are at least two possibilities. It could mean that the believer in the church was having a sexual relationship with the father’s wife of the type that Reuben had with his father’s secondary wife known as “concubine” that is described in Genesis 35:22:
While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard of it. Jacob had twelve sons:
This sexual relationship with the father’s concubine cost Reuben the blessing of his birthright, as stated in 1 Chronicles 5:1:
The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (he was the firstborn, but when he defiled his father’s marriage bed, his rights as firstborn were given to the sons of Joseph son of Israel; so he could not be listed in the genealogical record in accordance with his birthright,
This was not the only case recorded in the OT Scripture of a man having sex with his father’s concubine. There was the case of divine discipline brought on David for his murder and adulterous affair that led to his son Absalom having sexual relationship with his father’s concubine in a public manner, as stated in 2 Samuel 16:22:
So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, and he lay with his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.
This sexual relationship of Absalom with his father’s concubines although part of David’s divine discipline but it was something intolerable that David no longer had any relationship with them, as recorded in 2 Samuel 20:3:
When David returned to his palace in Jerusalem, he took the ten concubines he had left to take care of the palace and put them in a house under guard. He provided for them, but did not lie with them. They were kept in confinement till the day of their death, living as widows.
We can understand David’s action regarding his concubines because it would be degrading both to him and the women involved, to have had sex with a son and his father. But more importantly, it is an act that dishonors God as that was the kind of sexual sin that Prophet Amos denounced as dishonoring God in Amos 2:7:
They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name.
The phrase the same girl refers to a slave girl not a wife of a man. The verbal phrase profane my holy name means to dishonor God. If a son and a father having sex with the same slave girl is dishonoring of God, one cannot imagine what it would be for a son to have sexual relationship with the father’s wife. That aside, the first possible meaning of what it means for a man to have his father’s wife is to have sexual relationship with her.
A second possible interpretation of what Apostle Paul meant when he wrote the last sentence of 1 Corinthians 5:1 A man has his father’s wife is that the believer in view in our passage was married to the father’s wife and so implies sexual relationship also. This could have happened if either the woman was divorced from the man’s father or that his father was dead and for whatever reason decided to marry his father’s widow. Apparently, the woman involve might not have been a believer in the local church. We say this because the apostle would have indicated that two believers in the local church were having a sexual relationship that was improper before God.
We have presented two possible interpretations, so which of these was the likely situation? It is the second interpretation of the man in question being married to the father’s widow or divorced wife. Our reason for this interpretation is that the Greek verb translated “has” is in the present tense that here would imply the kind of action or state of being that began in the past and continues to the time the apostle wrote. In effect, the present tense the apostle used in our passage emphasized that the action involved is in progress. Thus, as the apostle wrote this epistle the man involved was still married to the father’s wife and so continues to have sex with the stepmother. Furthermore, the verbal phrase has his father’s wife in 1 Corinthian 5:1 elsewhere in the Greek NT has the sense of being married to someone. The Greek expression is one that appears in the narrative of the death of John the Baptist in the hands of Herod. In this narrative “to have” a woman is indicated to mean “to marry” the woman in question. Mark tells us that Herod has married his brother’s wife that was denounced by John the Baptist, as narrated in Mark 6:17:
For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married.
As Mark continues his narrative of how John the Baptist came to be executed, he indicated that it was because John had denounced Herod for marrying his brother’s wife but this time he used similar Greek expression we have in 1 Corinthians 5:1 in Mark 6:18:
For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”
Herod’s marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife, is not the same case of Levirate marriage stipulated in Deuteronomy 25:5–6:
5 If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. 6 The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.
Levirate marriage is authorized when a man dies without a son but that seemed not to be the case with Herod for clearly Herodias had at least a daughter as indicated in Mark 6:22:
When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests.
The king said to the girl, “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.”
John based his denunciation of Herod on the law that indicates a man should not marry his brother’s wife when the situation does not fit the levirate law, as stated in Leviticus 20:21:
“‘If a man marries his brother’s wife, it is an act of impurity; he has dishonored his brother. They will be childless.
Anyway, the fact that Mark indicated that Herod married Herodias and then later stated that Herod had his brother’s wife indicates that to have a wife is the same as to be married to the woman. Thus, we contend that the relationship between the woman in question in Corinth with the believer in the local church is that of marriage. Contrary to some interpreters, they were not living together without being married as that would have caught the attention of those in the local church in Corinth. Of course, it is possible that because of the Roman law that prohibits such marriage that the father’s wife of the man in question was his concubine. Truly, we cannot be certain of their relationship but that of wife and husband is more probable. Anyway, the Scripture is clear that a man should not marry his father’s wife, as stated in Deuteronomy 22:30:
A man is not to marry his father’s wife; he must not dishonor his father’s bed.
Furthermore, the Scripture forbids a man having sex with the father’s wife since such act would bring the individual concerned under God’s curse as stated in Deuteronomy 27:20:
“Cursed is the man who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he dishonors his father’s bed.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
Based on these instructions, one wonders how the Corinthians would have tolerated a man marrying his father’s wife or being in an incestuous relationship with the father’s wife. It must be because they misunderstood what the Scripture requires, or they might have considered such law as no longer applicable to them as some today who defend homosexuality do. They say that the instruction in Leviticus 18 does not apply to the believers today and so justify homosexuality.
In any case, it is the failure of the Corinthians that is the basis of stating that a local church must be careful to understand what sexual immorality entails so as to be able to deal with it in the congregation of believers. The church today is in the midst of crisis with sexual immorality not only because the culture encroached in the lifestyle of believers but because many who claim to be teachers of the church do not take the word of God seriously as they should. Thus, we have many local churches tolerate sexual immorality among its members that is not even of the same nature as the Holy Spirit chided the church in Corinth. They have no problems with those who are members of their local churches living together without marriage. They have no problem with those who have children outside marriage being their members. In some cases, they have no problem with those who styled themselves homosexuals being their teachers. Despite these various situations, the church that must maintain its purity should carefully understand what sexual immorality is so that they would take the steps that we will consider later that are necessary to handle those involved in sexual immorality in the local church. The point is that it is the responsibility of the church to understand and recognize any unauthorized sexual relationship among its membership such as people living together without being married or anyone involved in sex outside the marriage bond or someone in homosexual relationship.
06/28/19