Commentary on the Epistles to the Corinthians John Calvin
Commentary on the Corinthians
281 As, then, we are received into the communion of the Church, and remain in it on this condition, that we are under the protection and guardianship of Christ, I say, that he who is cast out of the Church is in a manner delivered over to the power of Satan, for he becomes an alien, and is cast out of Christ's kingdom.
The clause that follows, for the destruction of the flesh, is made use of for the purpose of softening; for Paul's meaning is not that the person who is chastised is given over to Satan to be utterly ruined, or so as to be given up to the devil in perpetual bondage, but that it is a temporary condemnation, and not only so, but of such a nature as will be salutary. For as the salvation equally with the condemnation of the spirit is eternal, he takes the condemnation of the flesh as meaning temporal condemnation. "We will condemn him in this world for a time, that the Lord may preserve him in his kingdom." This furnishes an answer to the objection, by which some endeavor to set aside this exposition, for as the sentence of excommunication is directed rather against the soul than against the outward man, they inquire how it can be called the destruction of the flesh My answer, then, is, (as I have already in part stated,) that the destruction of the flesh is opposed to the salvation of the spirit, simply because the former is temporal and the latter is eternal. In this sense the Apostle in Hebrews 5:7, uses the expression the days of Christ's flesh, to mean the course of his mortal life. Now the Church in chastising offenders with severity, spares them not in this world, in order that God may spare them. 282 Should any one wish to have anything farther in reference to the rite of excommunication, its causes, necessity, purposes, and limitation, let him consult my Institutes. 283
1 Corinthians 5:6-8
1 Corinthians 5:6-8 6. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
6. Non est bona gloriatio vestra: an nescitis, quod exiguum fermentum totam massam fermentat?
7. Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.
7. Expurgate ergo vetus fermentum, ut sitis nova conspersio, sicut estis azymi: nam Pascha nostrum pro nobis immolatum est, Christus. 284
8. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
281"The reader will find the same sentiment quoted in the Institutes, volume 3. — Ed. 282"Mais c'est afin que Dieu leur espargne;" — "But it is in order that God may spare them."
283See Institutes, volume 3. 284"Nostre Pasque, assavoir Christ;" — "Our passover, namely, Christ."