Zandrew Nardson Mationg

Biblical Theology

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to understand the purpose of church discipline and its

goal or desired result. I’ll also discuss what should be the expected response of the church to

the offender and their prohibition to the offender. I’ll use 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 to provide

answer to these questions above.

I’ll use the process of exegesis to understand how Apostle Paul deal with the problem

in the Corinthian Church. I’ll also use the some words taken from their original language to

further understand Apostle Paul meant at that time to the Corinthian believers. At the end of

this paper I’ll put my conclusion of all the research I made about church discipline

I particularly choose this topic because I was disciplined by my church to the point of

leaving the church. As I learn in this institution about discipline I feel like what I experience

was unfair and that is why I take on this topic for me to have a clear understanding of church

discipline, so that in my future ministry I won’t misuse this act that God himself use to us

when we commit sin in his presence.

Zandrew Nardson Mationg
Biblical Theology

I. The Reason of Church Discipline: Sin (v. 1-5)

1. Nature of the Sin (v.1-2)

Paul starts this section by saying “It is commonly reported that there is fornication

among you.” The word “commonly: (halos) means “altogether,” “most assuredly,”

“incontrovertibly.”1 The meaning is not so much that a report had come to apostle nor

even that the situation was common knowledge in churches in other cities. The truth

was that the incident was generally known within the church at Corinthians.2 The

matter was a topic of frequent conversation.

The exact nature of the sin is not clear. “His father’s wife” probably does not mean

his mother, else Paul would have said so. But whether it means that the offender had

seduced his step-mother, or that the woman was divorced from his father, or that the

father had died, leaving a widow, is not clear. What is quite clear is that illicit union

of a particularly unsavory kind had been contracted. That it “does not occur even

among pagans” does not mean that it never occurred, but that it was infrequent and

that it was condemned as evil. It was, for example, forbidden by Roman law, and, of

course, by the Old Testament.3

Apostle Paul is dealing with a two-fold problem which involves that person who

committed the sin and the church response to the offender. Fornication (porneia)

originally meant prostitution, “but came to be applied to unlawful sexual intercourse

generally.”4 It is possible, even after people have been saved from sin, for such things

1
Donald S. Metz, Beacon Bible Commentary, (Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, Kansas City, 1968), pg. 346
2
Ibid.
3
Leon Morris, The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: an Introduction and Commentary, (Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company), pg.83
4
Zandrew Nardson Mationg
Biblical Theology

to erupt occasionally in the church. The Corinthian man involved probably had joined

the church as a true believer, and had fallen into this sin after becoming part of the

church fellowship.

2. Apostle Paul’s Judgment