Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Victor Paul Furnish: 1 Corinthians 5:9 is a Reference to a Previous Letter to the Corinthians

  

Between the time of Paul’s departure from Corinth, probably in the summer of 51, and the writing of the letter known as 1 Cor, written perhaps in the fall of 54 . .. the apostle wrote another letter to his church in the Achaian capital. We know about this letter because Paul himself refers to it in 1 Cor. 5:9. From this brief reference one learns that it included a warning to tolerate no immorality within the congregation; it may be presumed that the apostle had even counseled the expulsion of errant members. The Corinthian Christians had misunderstood these instructions, however, thinking that they were being admonished to sever their relationships with all the non-believers, in effect withdrawing themselves from pagan society. It is to correct this false impression that Paul writes as he does in 1 Cor 5:9-13. (Victor Paul Furnish, II Corinthians [AB 32a; Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1984], 26-27)