1Cor 5:1, 7:2, 16:3, 18 | PNT | STEP | Impurity in the Church SUMMARY OF I CORINTHIANS 5: The Incestuous Person. The Discipline Commanded. The Old Leaven to Be Purged Out. Heinous Offenders Not to Be Recognized Socially in the Church. [There is] fornication among you . Licentiousness was one of the besetting sins of the Gentiles at this time. Purity of life was almost unknown. So far was unchastity from being held in disrepute that temples were everywhere dedicated to Aphrodite (Venus), and in Corinth at the time when Paul wrote there stood one with a thousand priestesses, harlots, a gigantic brothel in the name of religion. It is not wonderful that time was required to cleanse the church, formed of converts from these heathen, from impurity. Not so much as named among the Gentiles . There was in the church a still worse case than the Gentiles would condone; a man had taken, probably after the death of his father, his father's wife, his own step-mother. This sort of incest was condemned by Greeks and Romans (Cicero, "Oratio pro Cluentio").

1 Corinthians 5:1

Impurity in the Church SUMMARY OF I CORINTHIANS 5: The Incestuous Person. The Discipline Commanded. The Old Leaven to Be Purged Out. Heinous Offenders Not to Be Recognized Socially in the Church. [There is] fornication among you. Licentiousness was one of the besetting sins of the Gentiles at this time. Purity of life was almost unknown. So far was unchastity from being held in disrepute that temples were everywhere dedicated to Aphrodite (Venus), and in Corinth at the time when Paul wrote there stood one with a thousand priestesses, harlots, a gigantic brothel in the name of religion. It is not wonderful that time was required to cleanse the church, formed of converts from these heathen, from impurity.

Not so much as named among the Gentiles. There was in the church a still worse case than the Gentiles would condone; a man had taken, probably after the death of his father, his father's wife, his own step-mother. This sort of incest was condemned by Greeks and Romans (Cicero, "Oratio pro Cluentio").

1 Corinthians 7:2

[To avoid] fornication. To prevent this sin, and the temptations to it in an unmarried state, especially in a vicious community, it was best for each sex that they be married; the normal condition of the sexes.

1 Corinthians 16:3

Whomsoever ye shall approve by [your] letters. The church should select its own messengers, giving them letters as credentials. He lets the Corinthians choose the bearers of their own bounty.

1 Corinthians 5:1

1 Corinthians 7:2

1 Corinthians 16:3

1 Corinthians 16:18