1Cor 5:11, 2Jo 10-11 | JFB | STEP | 11. But now —"Now" does not express time, but " the case being so, " namely, that to avoid fornicators, &c., of the world, you would have to leave the world altogether, which would be absurd. So "now" is used in . Thus we avoid making the apostle now retract a command which he had before given. I have written —that is, my meaning in the letter I wrote was "not to keep company," &c. a brother —contrasted with a "fornicator . . . of the world " ( ). There is less danger in associating with open worldlings than with carnal professors. Here, as in , "covetousness" is joined with "fornication": the common fount of both being "the fierce and ever fiercer longing of the creature, which has turned from God, to fill itself with the inferior objects of sense" [TRENCH , Greek Synonyms of the New Testament ]. Hence "idolatry" is associated with them: and the covetous man is termed an "idolater" ( ). The Corinthians did not fall into open idolatry, but ate things offered to idols, so making a compromise with the heathen; just as they connived at fornication. Thus this verse prepares for the precepts in , &c. Compare the similar case of fornication, combined with a similar idolatrous compromise, after the pattern of Israel with the Midianites ( ). no not to eat —not to sit at the same table with such; whether at the love-feasts ( agapæ ) or in private intercourse, much more at the Lord's table: at the last, too often now the guests "are not as children in one family, but like a heterogeneous crowd of strangers in an inn" [BENGEL ] (compare ).

1 Corinthians 5:11

11. But now—"Now" does not express time, but "the case being so," namely, that to avoid fornicators, &c., of the world, you would have to leave the world altogether, which would be absurd. So "now" is used in Heb 11:16. Thus we avoid making the apostle now retract a command which he had before given.

I have written—that is, my meaning in the letter I wrote was "not to keep company," &c.

a brother—contrasted with a "fornicator . . . of the world" (1Co 5:10). There is less danger in associating with open worldlings than with carnal professors. Here, as in Eph 5:3, 5, "covetousness" is joined with "fornication": the common fount of both being "the fierce and ever fiercer longing of the creature, which has turned from God, to fill itself with the inferior objects of sense" [TRENCH, Greek Synonyms of the New Testament]. Hence "idolatry" is associated with them: and the covetous man is termed an "idolater" (Nu 25:1, 2). The Corinthians did not fall into open idolatry, but ate things offered to idols, so making a compromise with the heathen; just as they connived at fornication. Thus this verse prepares for the precepts in 1Co 8:4, &c. Compare the similar case of fornication, combined with a similar idolatrous compromise, after the pattern of Israel with the Midianites (Re 2:14).

no not to eat—not to sit at the same table with such; whether at the love-feasts (agapæ) or in private intercourse, much more at the Lord's table: at the last, too often now the guests "are not as children in one family, but like a heterogeneous crowd of strangers in an inn" [BENGEL] (compare Ga 2:12; 2Jo 10, 11).

1 Corinthians 5:11

2 John 10-11