JAYPEE C. DE GUZMAN HERMENEUTICS ASS. #1 PS. MARK O.

PUNZALAN

I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so
that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
1 Corinthians 5:5

(1) There is no evidence that delivering to Satan was any form of expulsion known
either among the Jews or the Christians. According to the bible scholars who
have searched all the Jewish records, have found nothing that answers to this: it
was a species of punishment administered in extraordinary cases, in which the
body and the mind of an absolute transgressor were delivered by the authority of
God into the power of Satan, to be tortured with diseases and terrors as a
warning to all; but while the body and mind were thus tormented, the immortal
spirit was under the influence of the Divine mercy; and the affliction, in all
probability, was in general only for a season; though sometimes it was evidently
unto death, as the destruction of the flesh seems to imply. But the soul found
mercy at the hand of God; for such a most extraordinary interference of God's
power and justice, and of Satan's influence, could not fail to bring the person to a
state of the deepest humiliation and contrition; and thus, while the flesh was
destroyed, the spirit was saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. No such power as
this remains in the Church of God; none such should be assumed; the
pretensions to it are as wicked as they are vain. It was the same power by which
Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead, and Elymas the sorcerer struck blind.
Apostles alone were intrusted with it.

(2) In this section of the apostle’s letter, he deals with a gross example of immorality
in the Corinthian church. A man had become sexually intimate with his
stepmother (the language is very precise – his “father’s wife,” as opposed to his
own “mother”).The church members were not offended by the sordid situation;
rather, they gloried in it. Such compromise called for the sternest rebuke. Deliver
the offending brother to Satan for “the destruction of the flesh.”

(3) The expression “deliver such a one unto Satan” is the equivalent of “put away the
wicked man from among yourselves” (v. 13).It is a biblical idiom for the severing
of Christian fellowship. It represents a dramatic expression of the literal formula,
“have no company with” (v. 9), or the more specific admonition “with such a one
do not even eat” (v. 11), i.e., refrain from ordinary social fraternization with such a
one. Also, that is, that his body might be shook, buffeted, afflicted, and tortured in
a terrible manner; that by this means he might be brought to a sense of his sin, to
repentance for it, and make an humble acknowledgment of it.
 (4) That he might be renewed in the spirit of his mind, be restored by repentance,
and his soul be saved in the day of Christ; either at death, when soul and body
would be separated, or at the day of the resurrection, when both should be
reunited; for the flesh here means, not the corruption of nature, in opposition to
the spirit, as a principle of grace, but the body, in distinction from the soul: nor
was the soul of this man, only his body, delivered for a time unto Satan; the end
of which was, that his soul might be saved, which could never be done by
delivering it up to Satan.

REFERENCES:
Jackson, W. (n.d.). What Is the Meaning of, "Destruction of the Flesh," in 1 Corinthians 5:5?
Retrieved December 04, 2017, from https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/865-what-is-the-
meaning-of-destruction-of-the-flesh-in-1-corinthians-5-5
1 Corinthians 5:5 Commentary - John Gill's Exposition of the Bible. (n.d.). Retrieved December
04, 2017, from https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/1-
corinthians-5-5.html
1 Corinthians 5:5 - I have decided... - Verse-by-Verse Commentary. (n.d.). Retrieved December
04, 2017, from https://www.studylight.org/commentary/1-corinthians/5-5.html