(Tap footnote to read it. Old Testament quotations/allusions are underlined. [Brackets] indicate a textual variant.fnWhen two (or more) different copies of an original manuscript disagree on any given word or phrase — addition, omission, word order, etc. — the disagreement is called a "textual variant". ~99% of existing textual variants are either minor (like spelling), obviously not original (often appearing only in a few late manuscripts), or don't affect meaning (like "Jesus Christ" vs. "Christ Jesus"). The ~1% that remain do not affect any central doctrine of Christianity. The BOS Bible only marks significant textual variants that affect the meaning; smaller variants that do not affect meaning won't be marked for readability. "Love" with a caret ("^love") is agapé.fn"agapé" The Greek words ἀγάπη (agapé, noun), and ἀγαπάω (agapaó; verb) are typically translated "love". However, unlike our English word "love" – which primarily speaks of affection and feelings — agapé centers on choice and behavior. It’s the "love" based on will, choice, behavior, and action; not feelings. (Feelings-based love is the Greek word φιλέω (phileó), which properly means "brotherly love/affection".) Thus, you could hate someone passionately and still treat him with "agapé". Agapé "love" is best understood as the pursuit of what is most beneficial to someone or something, regardless of the cost to yourself or the type of response received from the person or thing. It can also indicate a preference for someone or something over other things. An asterisk (*) indicates a verb in the Greek perfect tense.fnThe Greek perfect tense signifies a completed action in the past with a result and/or an ongoing state that extends into the present. For example, Hebrews 12:2 says in part: "He *sat down at the right hand of the throne of God"; the verb for "sat" is in the perfect tense, indicating that He sat down once (completed action in the past), and also that He remains seated until the present moment (ongoing state).)
Rebuking Fornication
- 1 Fornication is actually reported among you, and fornication of such a kind that it’s not even done among the pagans, namely that someone has the wife of his father.fnquotation/allusion to Leviticus 18:8 and 20:11
- 2 And you are *puffed up and didn’t mourn instead, so that the man who did this deed might be removed from your midst.
- 3 For indeed I’m absent in body but present in spirit, and like I’m present, I have already judged the man who committed this deed this way.
- 4 When you (and my spirit) are assembled with the power of our Lord Jesus, then in the name of our Lord JesusfnThere are four ways to assemble the three significant parts of this verse with the infinitive verb “to deliver” in the beginning of the next verse. The principal parts are: the phrase “in the name” (of our Lord Jesus), the participle “being assembled”, the phrase “with the power” (of our Lord Jesus). In a shortened form, here are the ways to look at it: (1) “Assembled in the name… with the power of Jesus deliver…” (2) “Assembled in the name and with the power… deliver…” (3) “Assembled… in the name and with the power deliver…” (4) “Assembled with the power… in the name of Jesus deliver…” Versions #2 and #3 seem out of place because they repeat the authority/power twice in the same clause. While #1 has no obvious issues, the phrase “in the name” is more commonly used of pronouncements in the New Testament, (as in 2 Thessalonians 3:6, Acts 3:6, Acts 16:18). #4 was chosen for this reason, but the other options remain equally valid.
- 5 you are to deliver such a man to Satan for the ruin of the flesh, so that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord [Jesus].
- 6 Your boast isn’t good. Don’t you *know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?
- 7 Purge the old leaven so that you might be a new lump of dough, just as you are unleavened. For also our Passover lamb was sacrificed – the Anointed –
- 8 therefore, we should observe the feast, but not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of purity and truth.fnquotation/allusion to Exodus 12:1-28, the instructions for Passover. Notably, the Jews were required by the Mosaic Law to remove all the leaven/yeast from their houses during this time, and to abstain from eating leaven. (Exodus 12:15-20) In the law, there was a symbolic connection between leaven and sin, which Jesus also alluded to. (Matthew 16:6-12). Thus, being “unleavened” can symbolize righteousness or being without the stain of sin, which seems to be how Paul is using it here.
Don’t socialize with “Christian” fornicators
- 9 I wrote to you in my letter that you aren’t to socialize with fornicators,
- 10 not at all meaning the fornicators of this world – or the coveters, and robbers, or idolaters – since then you’d need to depart from the world.
- 11 But now, I wrote telling you not to socialize with anyone calling himself a brother if he’s a fornicator, or a coveter, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or a robber. Don’t even eat with such a man.
- 12 For why is it my place to judge the men outside the church? Don’t you judge the men inside the church?
- 13 However, God judges the men outside. Remove that wicked man from among you.fnquotation/allusion to several verses in Deuteronomy, namely: 13:5, 17:7, 19:19, 21:21, 22:21, and 24:7
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