Causing to Stumble

⁶ “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.^{(A) 7} Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!^{(B) 8} If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble,^(C) cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. ⁹ And if your eye causes you to stumble,^(D) gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.^(E)

Dealing With Sin in the Church

¹⁵ “If your brother or sister^[a] sins,^[b] go and point out their fault,^(A) just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. ¹⁶ But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’^{[c](B) 17} If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church;^(C) and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.^(D)

Dealing With a Case of Incest

5 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife.^{(A) 2} And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning^(B) and have put out of your fellowship^(C) the man who has been doing this? ³ For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit.^(D) As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus^(E) on the one who has been doing this. ⁴ So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, ⁵ hand this man over^(F) to Satan^(G) for the destruction of the flesh,^[a][b] so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.^(H)

⁶ Your boasting is not good.^(I) Don’t you know that a little yeast^(J) leavens the whole batch of dough?^{(K) 7} Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.^{(L) 8} Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread^(M) of sincerity and truth.

⁹ I wrote to you in my letter not to associate^(N) with sexually immoral people— ¹⁰ not at all meaning the people of this world^(O) who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. ¹¹ But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister^[c](P) but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater^(Q) or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.^(R)

¹² What business is it of mine to judge those outside^(S) the church? Are you not to judge those inside?^{(T) 13} God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”^[d](U)