“To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” (1 Corinthians 5:5 KJV)
Many are taking this one verse and making it seems that the Eternal Security of the Believer cannot be true because look what Paul said about this guy in the church at Corinth. The only way to believe that is to completely ignore the context shown in this passage.
This verse comes from the context of Apostle Paul telling the Corinthians to expel a man for having sex with his father’s wife. WHOA! Not good right? Apparently the believers were not really saying anything against this act of sinful living, nor to him about doing such evil. They were accepting what he was doing and going about their business. This guy’s behaviour was so against Christian values and was likely not even saved, but attending the church. Just like today, we have many unsaved people in church groups.
The true believers in Christ for righteousness in the church at Corinth were not doing any good nor helping this man come to true salvation. They were accepting this bad behaviour in their group which will hurt the witness for Christ to others. By just ignoring his behaviour they may have been impeding the guys walk in salvation as well.
Paul is saying that leaving an unbeliever who is doing such despicable sin, in the group, will affect the whole group negatively for their witness to the unsaved world, and it is not helping this guy come to salvation either.
Paul’s point is to be firm with such an unbeliever among them and to boot him out of the church group. Let Satan have his way with him while he is doing such horrendous sin, because he is refusing the truth of the gospel to be saved. Do not keep him in the group, thinking it is okay because no one is confronting him. By booting him out, he may find that with no support, he will see the evil of his ways and come to ask God for forgiveness and mercy and to be saved. This concept also applies to born again believers who fall to great sin, to be restored back to right fellowship. For a person not saved but attending church, the Ten Commandments does the same thing to the unsaved; it shows how sinful they are. The Ten Commandments were given for the unsaved to come to salvation. The law REVEALS SIN but cannot fix it. (Romans 3:20). The STRENGTH OF SIN is THE LAW (1 Corinthians 15:56). The law is good, perfect and holy but CANNOT help you be good, perfect or holy. (Romans 7:7-12). Paul taught Timothy that ,
“…the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,…” (1 Timothy 1:8-9 KJV)
Who is THE RIGHTEOUS? It is every person who has been born again by belief on Christ. And if you continue reading, later in 2 Cor. 2, you will see that doing this had worked and the guy came to know the truth about what he was doing and was accepted back in the church at Corinth.
Keep in mind that context matters greatly and Apostle Paul never contradicts in his own writings. He preached the eternal security of the believer very strongly. (See Ephesians 1:13-14, Ephesians 2:8-9. 2 Cor. 5:17-21, Colossians 2, Romans 5,6 ,7,8)
Paul is not talking about this guy losing his new born again Spirit. He was not yet born again but hanging around in the church. Judas comes to mind too. He was with Jesus n His ministry, but he never fully believed Jesus was the Christ and betrayed Him and was never saved, though he had so much regret for the betrayal that he killed himself. Even if a person was born again and started committing such an act, the church could also do the same to such a person who refuses to repent over the act, and expel him from the church, hoping it would bring him to the end of his wrong belief in doing such an act, in hopes to restore the person.
