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1 Corinthians 5:1

It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.
1 Corinthians 5:1 · King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father’s wife.
  • BSB It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is intolerable even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.
  • NKJV It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife!
  • NASB It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, namely, that someone has his father’s wife.
  • NLT I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

There is gross sexual immorality in the church—a man with his father's wife—shocking even to pagans. It matters because tolerated sin in the church dishonors Christ and corrupts the body.

Overview

Paul turns to a scandal: a member living with his stepmother, a relationship condemned even by Gentile standards and forbidden in the Law (Lev. 18:8). The Corinthians' boasting blinded them to flagrant sin in their midst. This opens a case study in church discipline, showing that the holiness of Christ's people cannot coexist with proud tolerance of open immorality.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 31

  • Rev 21:8But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
  • Rev 2:21And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
  • Col 3:5Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
  • Lev 18:8The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness.
  • Eph 5:3But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
  • Gal 5:19Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
  • 1 Cor 6:18Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
  • Acts 15:29That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
  • 1 Cor 6:13Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
  • 1 Th 4:7For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
  • 2 Cor 12:21And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.
  • 1 Cor 5:11But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
  • Acts 15:20But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
  • 1 Cor 6:9Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
  • Jer 2:33Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways.
  • 2 Cor 7:12Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you.
  • Ezek 16:51–52Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done.
  • Ezek 16:47Yet hast thou not walked after their ways, nor done after their abominations: but, as if that were a very little thing, thou wast corrupted more than they in all thy ways.
  • Amos 2:7That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name:
  • Deut 27:20Cursed be he that lieth with his father’s wife; because he uncovereth his father’s skirt. And all the people shall say, Amen.
  • Deut 22:30A man shall not take his father’s wife, nor discover his father’s skirt.
  • 1 Cor 1:11For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
  • 1 Chr 5:1Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel, (for he was the firstborn; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father’s bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel: and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright.
  • Gen 35:22And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine: and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:
  • Lev 20:11And the man that lieth with his father’s wife hath uncovered his father’s nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
  • 2 Sam 16:22So they spread Absalom a tent upon the top of the house; and Absalom went in unto his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.
  • Gen 49:4Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.
  • 2 Sam 20:3And David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in ward, and fed them, but went not in unto them. So they were shut up unto the day of their death, living in widowhood.
  • 1 Sam 2:24Nay, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: ye make the LORD’s people to transgress.
  • Gen 37:2These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.
  • Ezek 22:10In thee have they discovered their fathers’ nakedness: in thee have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution.

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Christ at the center

Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God; he is our Passover sacrificed for us, the firstfruits of resurrection, the foundation on which everything is built.

How 1 Corinthians 5:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

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