Dr. Karlo Broussard delves into the enigmatic passage of 1 Corinthians 5:5, where St. Paul discusses delivering a man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.
Transcript:
I wanted to ask you about 1 Corinthians 5:5. It talks about handing his flesh over. It’s talking about the man who committed incest, and Paul’s writing to the Corinthians. The man who committed incest to hand his flesh over to Satan so that his soul may be saved. I’ve heard so many explanations. What does this mean?
Well, let me give it a shot here, buddy. All right. Here’s the text itself for our listeners. St. Paul says, “You are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus.” Now many commentators point out that what seems to be a hidden assumption here in Paul’s statement is that by excluding the individual from communion with the church, what we would call an excommunication, boring him from participation in the sacraments, he will now become vulnerable to the assaults of Satan even physically, such that his earthly and physical life, which is a blessing from God, will be cut short on a, that is, biological death on account of his sin, which led him to the exclusion from the church. But Paul’s teaching here that his spirit may be saved, a further hidden assumption, is that given the physical assault by Satan with him being outside of the visible boundaries, would lead him at the moment of his death to repentance such that on his judgment day, he will be saved.
And this is akin, think about this, Omar, this is akin to what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11 concerning those who are partaking of the Eucharist in an unworthy manner. For those who do not discern the body, there in 1 Corinthians 11, 29, Paul says that they have become ill and some have even died. So in that case, you have physical illness and death brought about, an assault of the flesh brought about on account of their sinful behavior in relation to participating in the Eucharist. Here, there seems to be something similar going on in this hidden assumption that Paul assumes that by excommunicating this individual, he will be assaulted in the body by Satan. That is, some form of physical element will come upon him such that he will die. But in that physical element that leads him, opens him up and leads him to the possibility of receiving salvation. Because as we all know, very often, physical suffering can break our pride, can break us and open us up to love and properly dispose us to receive God’s love. And that seems to be Paul’s assumption in his statement. St. Thomas Aquinas even comments on this in his commentary on 1 Corinthians 5 talking about how the man separated from the community of faith in the sacraments by which he is protected from the assaults of Satan now makes himself vulnerable to the assaults of Satan. And that seems to be what’s going on in Paul’s mind.
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