Devine Scripture

1 Corinthians 5:10

What does 1 Corinthians 5:10 mean?

A plain-English look at 1 Corinthians 5:10 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.

What 1 Corinthians 5:10 means

Paul clarifies he did not mean believers must avoid all contact with immoral people in the world—whether the sexually immoral, the greedy, extortioners, or idolaters. To do that would require leaving the world altogether. Christians live among sinners as lights, not as hermits. The church’s calling includes engagement, witness, and ordinary commerce with society. This distinction prevents legalism and isolation. The issue is not proximity to unbelievers but partnership with sin. By broadening the list of worldly vices, Paul shows the pervasiveness of sin in society and the impracticality—and undesirability—of total withdrawal from ordinary human relationships.

Parallel translations

WEB

World English Bible · 2000

not at all meaning with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous and extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world:

KJV

King James Version · 1611

Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.

ASV

American Standard Version · 1901

not at all meaning with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous and extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world:

BBE

Bible in Basic English · 1949

But I had not in mind the sinners who are outside the church, or those who have a desire for and take the property of others, or those who give worship to images; for it is not possible to keep away from such people without going out of the world completely:

YLT

Young's Literal Translation · 1862

and not certainly with the whoremongers of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, seeing ye ought then to go forth out of the world--

DRA

Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752

I mean not with the fornicators of this world or with the covetous or the extortioners or the servers of idols: otherwise you must needs go out of this world.

DBY

Darby Bible · 1890

not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the avaricious and rapacious, or idolaters, since [then] ye should go out of the world.

Context

Paul corrects a likely misunderstanding of his earlier instruction (v. 9). He distinguishes everyday interactions with outsiders from fellowship with unrepentant insiders. This sets up the sharper boundary of verse 11, which targets those “named a brother” who persist in such sins. The flow moves from clarification (v. 10) to application (v. 11), preventing the church from misdirecting its separation toward the world rather than addressing its own members.

v.9I wrote unto you in my epistle to have no company with fornicators;

v.10This passage

v.11but as it is, I wrote unto you not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one no, not to eat.

Cross references

Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.

  • Ephesians 2:2

    wherein ye once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience;

  • John 15:19

    If ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

  • 2 Corinthians 4:4

    in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them.

  • John 17:6

    I manifested thy name unto the men whom thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them to me; and they have kept thy word.

  • 1 Corinthians 1:20

    Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

  • 1 John 4:7

    Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God.

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