For what have I to do ... - I have no authority over them; and can exercise no jurisdiction over them. All my rules, therefore, must have reference only to those who are within the church.

To judge - To pass sentence upon; to condemn; or to punish. As a Christian apostle I have no jurisdiction over them.

Them also that are without - Without the pale of the Christian church; pagans; people of the world; those who did not profess to be Christians.

Do not ye judge ... - Is not your jurisdiction as Christians confined to those who are within the church, and professed members of it? ought you not to exercise discipline there, and inflict punishment on its unworthy members? Do you not in fact thus exercise discipline, and separate from your society unworthy persons - and ought it not to be done in this instance, and in reference to the offender in your church?

For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? - The term without, τους εξω, signifies those who were not members of the Church, and in this sense its correspondent term: החיצונים hachitsonim, those that are without, is generally understood in the Jewish writers, where it frequently occurs. The word και also, which greatly disturbs the sense here, is wanting in ABCFG, and several others, with the Syriac, Coptic, Slavonic, Vulgate, and the Itala; together with several of the fathers. The sentence, I think, with the omission of και also, should stand thus: Does it belong to me to pass sentence on those which are without - which are not members of the Church? By no means (ουχι.) Pass ye sentence on them which are within - which are members of the Church: those which are without - which are not members of the Church, God will pass sentence on, in that way in which he generally deals with the heathen world. But put ye away the evil from among yourselves. This is most evidently the apostle's meaning, and renders all comments unnecessary. In the last clause there appears to be an allusion to Deuteronomy 17:7, where the like directions are given to the congregation of Israel, relative to a person found guilty of idolatry: Thou shalt put away the evil from among you - where the version of the Septuagint is almost the same as that of the apostle: και εξαρεις τον πονηρον εξ ὑμων αυτων.

There are several important subjects in this chapter which intimately concern the Christian Church in general.

1. If evil be tolerated in religious societies, the work of God cannot prosper there. If one scandal appear, it should be the cause of general humiliation and mourning to the followers of God where it occurs; because the soul of a brother is on the road to perdition, the cause of God so far betrayed and injured, and Christ recrucified in the house of his friends. Pity should fill every heart towards the transgressor, and prayer for the backslider occupy all the members of the Church.

2. Discipline must be exercised in the Christian Church; without this it will soon differ but little from the wilderness of this world. But what judgment, prudence, piety, and caution, are requisite in the execution of this most important branch of a minister's duty! He may be too easy and tender, and permit the gangrene to remain till the flock be infected with it. Or he may be rigid and severe, and destroy parts that are vital while only professing to take away what is vitiated. A backslider is one who once knew less or more of the salvation of God. Hear what God says concerning such: Turn, ye backsliders, for I am married unto you. See how unwilling He is to give them up! He suffers long, and is kind: do thou likewise; and when thou art obliged to cut off the offender from the Church of Christ, follow him still with thy best advice and heartiest prayers.

3. A soul cut off from the flock of God is in an awful state! his outward defense is departed from him; and being no longer accountable to any for his conduct, he generally plunges into unprecedented depths of iniquity; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Reader, art thou without the pale of God's Church? remember it is here written, them that are Without God judgeth, 1 Corinthians 5:13.

4. Christians who wish to retain the spirituality of their religion should be very careful how they mingle with the world. He who is pleased with the company of ungodly men, no matter howsoever witty or learned, is either himself one with them, or is drinking into their spirit. It is impossible to associate with such by choice without receiving a portion of their contagion. A man may be amused or delighted with such people, but he will return even from the festival of wit with a lean soul. Howsoever contiguous they may be, yet the Church and the world are separated by an impassable gulf.

5. If all the fornicators, adulterers, drunkards, extortioners, and covetous persons which bear the Christian name, were to be publicly excommunicated from the Christian Church, how many, and how awful would the examples be! If however the discipline of the visible Church be so lax that such characters are tolerated in it, they should consider that this is no passport to heaven. In the sight of God they are not members of his Church; their citizenship is not in heaven, and therefore they have no right to expect the heavenly inheritance. It is not under names, creeds, or professions, that men shall be saved at the last day; those alone who were holy, who were here conformed to the image of Christ, shall inherit the kingdom of God. Those who expect it in any other way, or on any other account, will be sadly deceived.

For what have I to do to judge,.... To admonish, reprove, censure, and condemn:

them also that are without? without the church, who never were in it, or members of it; to whom ecclesiastical jurisdiction does not reach; and with whom the apostle had no more concern, than the magistrates of one city, or the heads of one family have with another:

do not ye judge them that are within? and them only? The apostle appeals to their own conduct, that they only reproved, censured, and punished with excommunication, such as were within the pale of the church, were members of it, and belonged unto it; nor did they pretend to exercise a power over others; and it would have been well if they had made use of the power they had over their own members, by admonishing and reproving such as had sinned; by censuring delinquents, and removing from their communion scandalous and impenitent offenders; and therefore they need not wonder that the apostle only meant fornicators, &c. among them, and not those that were in the world, by his forbidding to company with such: reference seems to be had to ways of speaking among the Jews, who used not only to call themselves the church, and the Gentiles the world, and so them that were without, both their land and church; but even those among themselves that were profane, in distinction from their wise and good men. They say (q),

"if a man puts his phylacteries on his forehead, or upon the palm of his hand, this is the way of heresy (or, as in the Talmud (r), the way of the Karaites); if he covered them with gold, and put them upon his glove (or on his garments without, so Bartenora, or, as Maimonides interprets it, his arm, shoulder, or breast), lo, this is , "the way of them that are without":''

on which the commentators (s) say, "these are the children of men, who walk after their own judgment, and not the judgment of the wise men": and Maimonides (t) says, they are such who deny the whole law, and neither believe anything, either of the written or the oral law.

(q) Misn. Megilla, c. 4. sect. 8. (r) T. Bab. Megilla, fol. 24. 2.((s) Jarchi, Bartenora, & Yom Tob, in Misn. Megilla, c. 4. sect. 8. (t) In. ib.

{10} For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?

(10) Those who are false brethren ought to be cast out of the congregation. As for those who are outside of it, they must be left to the judgment of God.

5:12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? It was not Paul's business, nor ours, to judge those without; hence the rule just given is not one to regulate our intercourse with them.

Do not ye judge them that are within? The authority of the church is over those who have been united with it. It can judge them.

5:12 I speak of Christians only. For what have I to do to judge heathens? But ye, as well as I, judge those of your own community.

12. what have I to do-You might have easily understood that my concern is not with unbelievers outside the Church, but that I referred to those within it.

also-Implying, Those within give me enough to do without those outside.

do not ye, &c.-Ye judge your fellow citizens, not strangers: much more should I [Bengel]. Rather, Is it not your duty to judge them that are within? God shall judge them that are without: do you look at home [Grotius]. God is the Judge of the salvation of the heathen, not we (Ro 2:12-16). Paul here gives an anticipatory censure of their going to law with saints before heathen tribunals, instead of judging such causes among themselves within.

5:9-13 Christians are to avoid familiar converse with all who disgrace the Christian name. Such are only fit companions for their brethren in sin, and to such company they should be left, whenever it is possible to do so. Alas, that there are many called Christians, whose conversation is more dangerous than that of heathens!