1 Corinthians 5

₁They told me there are people in your congregation who live sexually immoral lives. The sin they do is so bad that I could not believe it. Even the Gentiles don't do sinful things like that. They told me there is a man with you who had sex with his step-mother. ₂Why do you still think you are better than other people? If you were sorry about this sin, then it would have been better, and then you would have told the man who did this that he could no longer belong to your congregation.

₃I am not with you in Corinth now but it feels to me as if I am there. That is why I speak like someone who is there with you. I have already decided what must happen to the man who did this sin. ₄You are the congregation that belongs to our Lord Jesus and when you come together, you must know that I am there with you. Our Lord Jesus will also be there. He has great power and He will give his power to you. ₅You must give the man who has done this sin to Satan, so that Satan can make his sinful body suffer, so that the Lord can save him on the day when He comes again.

₆You think you are better than other people, and that is not good. You know that a little bit of yeast makes all the dough rise. ₇That is why you must take the man who did this sin away, out of the congregation, like the Israelites took the old yeast out of their houses when it was Passover. Then you will be like bread that was baked with fresh dough. And you are already like bread baked like that, without yeast. This is because our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed to take away our sins. Christ is our Passover Lamb. ₈That is why our lives must be like Passover, but we must not live like people who celebrate Passover with old yeast. If we live like that, we are doing wrong, and then we do things that are bad. No, we must live like people who celebrate Passover with flat bread. We must be honest, good and true before God.

₉In my other letter I told you to stay away from people who live immorally. ₁₀I did not say you must stay away from the bad people of this world who live immorally, or people who always want more and more money, or people who steal, or who worship_idols. If you want to stay away from all those bad people, then you will have to leave this world. ₁₁I said that you must stay away from people who say they believe in Christ, but they live immorally, they always want more money, they worship_idols, or they say bad things about other people, or they are always drunk or they steal other people's money. You must stay away from those people and you must not eat with them. ₁₂I do not want to judge people outside the congregation. ₁₃God will judge them. But you must judge people who are in the congregation. In the Old_Testament it is written: