1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles — that a man has his father’s wife!
2 And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you.
3 For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed.
actually reported (v.1) — The sin was well-known and a topic of general conversation.
sexual immorality (v.1) — The word refers to illicit sexual intercourse of any type. It seems that the man’s father was still alive (2 Corinthians 7:12), that the father and his wife were separated or divorced (perhaps because of the wife’s relations with the son), that the man was a Christian (v.11) and that the woman was not (v.13). The woman is often thought to be the man’s step-mother, but there is nothing in the text to rule out her being his mother. The crime was forbidden by Roman law and by Mosaic law (Leviticus 18:8; Deuteronomy 22:30. See also Ephesians 5:3).
puffed up (v.2) = self-complacency and pride — tense indicates an ongoing condition — Members of the church were proud regarding those issues covered in chapters 1-4, but some may have even been applauding the sinning man for his boldness and exercise of “Christian liberty.”
have not … mourned (v.2) — tense indicates a past action that should have occurred but hadn’t
deed (v.2) — The word expresses the heinous nature of the sin strongly.
taken away from you (v.2) — perhaps by divine judgment, but certainly as a result of their own actions
has so done (v.3) = has perpetrated — expresses the aggravated nature of the act.
