Delivered unto Satan – The Law of God: Questions and Answers

Delivered unto Satan

The Law of God: Questions and Answers

How shall we understand and apply God’s Law today?

The death penalty might still be applied.

…you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. 1 Corinthians 5:5

As we have seen, delivering this sinful man “to Satan” meant removing him from the gracious shelter of God and the community of faith, so that no opportunity was to be afforded him for accessing the means of grace through the church or its members.

He was literally cast outside the gates of the city of God and condemned to wander among the subjects of the dark and dying kingdom of Satan.

The goal in this was the “destruction of the flesh,” and it was quite possible that, had charges been brought against this man in a civil court, and had he been found guilty of a capital crime, he could have been executed by the State. It is the duty of civil magistrates to determine whether and when to wield the sword in vengeance against evildoers, and in societies where law can be fickle and unpredictable, criminals had every reason to expect that rulers would take a “hard line” against whatever they might define as contrary to the interests of the State.

But, as we shall see, by “the destruction of the flesh” Paul was not thinking so much about the application of the death penalty to a condemned sinner—although that was certainly a possibility. He was rather hoping that this man’s fleshly desires, having been exposed and condemned, and now exposed and susceptible to additional torment and condemnation beyond the pale of faith, might lead him at last to repentance and the renouncing of his sinful ways.

To this end, the members of the various churches in Corinth were to show no grace or favor to this man, to have nothing to do with him and not even to share a meal with him, even though he may be starving. This man was to know that his deeds were condemned by one and all and, as in the Old Testament, when citizens took up stones to administer the death penalty to the guilty, so here as well, all were expected to join in enforcing judgment and discipline against an unrepentant sinner.

But the goal was not to condemn and be done with the sinner.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.