1 Corinthians 5:11 tells the church not to keep close fellowship with a person who calls themselves a believer but lives in persistent, unrepentant sin. Paul also says that the church should not even share a meal with such a person. The verse was written by the apostle Paul to the church in Corinth, a busy port city where believers were struggling to live out their faith among many competing influences.
But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortionist. Don’t even eat with such a person.
1 Corinthians 5:11 (WEB)
What 1 Corinthians 5:11 Means
The verse begins with “I wrote to you,” which points back to an earlier letter Paul had sent that the Corinthians seem to have misunderstood. In that earlier letter he had told them to stop associating with sexually immoral people, and some readers took him to mean they should cut off all contact with unbelievers. Paul clarifies that he was never asking them to withdraw from the wider world, since they would have to leave the world entirely to do that.
The heart of the verse concerns a person “who is called a brother,” meaning someone who professes faith in Christ and is part of the church family, yet whose life shows a pattern of serious wrongdoing. The list of sins is varied: sexual immorality, greed, idolatry, slander, drunkenness, and extortion. What they share is that each is a practice of someone who has not turned from their behavior and whose lifestyle contradicts the gospel they claim.
The verse does not promise that the church will always know who is living this way, and it does not call Christians to hunt down failures or to act as judges over outsiders. It addresses how a faith community should respond when a person inside the church remains unrepentant. The instruction is about the shape of the church’s shared life, not a general rule for every relationship.
The Context of 1 Corinthians 5:11
First Corinthians was written by Paul to a church he had founded in Corinth, a city known for commerce, pleasure, and moral looseness. The letter addresses a series of problems in the congregation, including quarrels, lawsuits between believers, and confusion about sexuality and marriage. Chapter 5 deals with a specific case of a man in the church living in a sexual relationship that even the surrounding pagan culture found shocking, and the congregation had been proud rather than grieved.
Just before verse 11, Paul writes about keeping the feast with sincerity and truth rather than the old yeast of malice and wickedness, which is a picture drawn from Passover. Just after, he asks why he should judge outsiders, since God judges them, and he returns to the command to put the wicked person out from among the believers. Reading the verse within this sequence shows that Paul is concerned about the purity of the church community, not about the wider world.
Key Phrases in 1 Corinthians 5:11
Matthew 18:15
“If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained back your brother.
(WEB)
Jesus gives a step-by-step process for dealing with a brother who sins, beginning with a private conversation and moving toward involving others only if needed. This passage shows the careful, restorative approach that stands behind Paul’s stronger instruction in Corinthians.
2 Corinthians 2:6-7
6 This punishment which was inflicted by the many is sufficient for such a one; 7 so that on the contrary you should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his excessive sorrow.
(WEB)
In a later letter, Paul tells the Corinthians that the discipline had done its work and the offender should now be forgiven and comforted. This shows that the purpose of separation from fellowship was always restoration, and that the church should welcome a repentant person back.
A Short Prayer From 1 Corinthians 5:11
Lord, you have made the church a family and called us to live in the light of your holiness. Help us to love one another enough to speak the truth, to hope for repentance, and to never treat sin lightly. Give us wisdom in hard situations, and let our fellowship reflect your faithfulness and purity. Where someone among us has strayed, draw them back to you, and give us patient hearts that long for their return. Amen.
