1 Corinthians 5:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

“But I wrote to you,” if anyone among the brethren is such, “with such a one not even to eat.” Here he alludes to others who live viciously.

But how can a brother be an idolater? In the same way as the Samaritans once were, who held to piety only halfway. On the other hand, here he begins beforehand the discourse about food sacrificed to idols, which he intended to present later.

“Or covetous.” He also rejects such people. Therefore he says afterward: “Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud,” 1 Cor 6:7-8.

“Or a drunkard.” He condemns this afterward also, when he says: “One is hungry and another is drunk,” 1 Cor 11:21, and, “Food is for the stomach, and the stomach for food,” 1 Cor 6:13.

“Or a reviler, or a robber.” He had rebuked such people earlier.

You see, there was not only one fornicator, but also others, and not only one vice, but various vices. But how can a brother also be an idolater?

Just as the Samaritans were once only half pious, so it happened also with the Corinthians. That is, some of them still held to idols.

Besides this, the Apostle is preparing to speak about those who ate food sacrificed to idols. He rightly said, “being called a brother.” For anyone guilty of the sins listed above bears only the name of brother, but in reality is not a brother.

The word ή πόρνος may be taken as a disjunctive particle, ή, as in the expressions that follow. But it may also be taken as the verb “to remain,” ή, in this sense: if anyone, being called a brother, remains, υπάρχη, a fornicator, and so forth.

“With such a one not even to eat,” so that he may recognize himself as defiled because of sin and abstain from it.

But if anyone is called a brother and is a fornicator, or covetous, or anything of the sort, do not associate with such a one.

He forbids eating with a brother, but does not forbid it with unbelievers, since he says: “If someone invites you to a meal, and you wish to go, eat whatever is set before you” (Lk 10:8).

“But now I have written to you not to mix,” that is, I wrote to you in the following sense: “If anyone called a brother is a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler. Or a drunkard, or a robber, do not even eat with such a one.” If one must not have fellowship in ordinary food with such people, much less in the Mystical and Divine food.

Question 8. Concerning monks who freely associate with all whom they meet, pray with them, and eat food with them: may such men be admitted to the common table and psalmody? Answer. Since the Apostle commands you “to withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly, and not according to the tradition which he received from us” (2 Thess 3:6), how did you not judge this rightly by yourselves? Therefore, if they abstain from the sinful habit, after undergoing the proper penance, they may be received. Yet one must observe who those are whom you call people met by chance. Are they heretics, or men openly blameworthy in life? Of such the Apostle says: “If any man called a brother is a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater,” and so forth, “with such a one not even to eat” (1 Cor 5:11).

“An idolater.” Although Christians had ceased to be idol-worshipers, many of them entered the temples (1 Cor 8:10). Regarding idols as an empty thing, they pretended to worship them without any fear. From such conduct hypocrisy developed, and scandal was born for those weak in conscience. “With such a one do not even eat.” The original purity of morals required the complete withdrawal of Christians from violators of the moral Law. In condescension to the weakness of her children, the Church, always pure in Herself and strict in Her demands, requires of them at least that they not take part in the iniquities of sinners.

Having strictly forbidden all communion with fornicators and other ungodly people, the Apostle nevertheless specifies that he commands such separation “not altogether with the fornicators of this world” and other ungodly people. “For then,” he says, “you would need to go out of this world.” Rather, he means those “who, being called a brother,” that is, belonging to the Christian community, “remain a fornicator, or covetous,” and so forth. “With such a one do not even eat,” that is, do not share bread and salt, lest through ordinary association with these hardened ungodly people you be infected by their impiety.

In giving rules for the Christian attitude toward manifest sinners, the Apostle teaches that there must be no communion with them. Earlier, in verses 2-5, the Apostle wrote that they should be removed from among them. Now he teaches them not to associate with them. But this would mean that Christians themselves would have to withdraw, since it was impossible for them not to have dealings with pagans, who were all sinners. Therefore the Apostle explains that his prohibition concerns only manifest sinners from among Christians. Even with them, it means not entering into the closest union, expressed, for example, in eating food, and especially mystical food.

This, he says, is the sense in which I wrote to you: do not mingle, do not enter into relations, and do not have close communion with someone who bears the name of Christian yet gives himself over to manifest vices.

“With such a one not even to eat.” This means ordinary hospitality: neither invite him to your house, nor go to him, nor enter into dealings with him.

Theodoret observes: “If one must not have communion with such people in ordinary food, then much more in the mystical and divine food.”

The flow of the discourse also shows that if they themselves must not mingle with such people, then they must not allow such people to mingle with them. If this is so in the ordinary order of life, much more is it so in the Church.