John Calvin Commentary 1 Corinthians 5:10

"not at all [meaning] with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous and extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world:" — 1 Corinthians 5:10 (ASV)

Since you would have required. Interpreters especially disagree about this clause. For some say, “You must leave Greece sooner.” Ambrose, on the other hand, says, “You must rather die.” Erasmus interprets it as an optative, as if Paul said, “If only it were permissible for you to leave the world altogether; but since you cannot do this, you must at least leave the society of those who falsely claim the name of Christians and, in the meantime, exhibit the worst example in their lives.” Chrysostom’s interpretation seems more likely to be true.

According to him, the meaning is this: “When I command you to shun fornicators, I do not mean all such people; otherwise you would need to search for another world, for we must live among thorns as long as we live on earth. I only require this: that you do not associate with fornicators who wish to be regarded as brothers, lest by your tolerance you seem to approve of their wickedness.” Thus the term world here must be understood to mean the present life, as in John 17:15.

I pray not, Father, that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest deliver them from the evil.

Against this interpretation, an objection might be raised with the question: “Since Paul said this at a time when Christians were still mixed with pagans and dispersed among them, what should be done now, when all have nominally committed themselves to Christ? For even today we must leave the world if we want to avoid the company of the wicked, and there are no outsiders when all take Christ’s name upon themselves and are consecrated to Him by baptism.”

If anyone is inclined to follow Chrysostom, they will find no difficulty in replying to this effect: that Paul here assumed what was true—that where the power of excommunication exists, there is an easy remedy for separating the good from the bad, if churches do their duty.

Regarding outsiders, the Christians at Corinth had no jurisdiction, and they could not restrain their immoral lifestyle. Therefore, they would have had to leave the world if they wanted to avoid the company of the wicked, whose vices they could not correct.

For my part, since I am unwilling to adopt interpretations that require twisting the words to make them fit, I prefer an interpretation different from all these. This involves taking the word rendered to go out as meaning to be separated, and the term world as meaning the pollutions of the world: “What need do you have of an instruction regarding the children of this world (Luke 16:8)? For having once for all renounced the world, it is fitting for you to keep separate from their society, for the whole world lieth in the wicked one” (1 John 5:19).

If anyone is not satisfied with this interpretation, here is another probable one: “I do not write to you in general terms that you should shun the society of the fornicators of this world, though that you should do, without any admonition from me.” I prefer the former, however. I am not its first originator, but while it has been proposed previously by others, I believe I have adapted it more fully to Paul’s line of argument.

There is, then, a sort of intentional omission when he says that he makes no mention of those that are without, since the Corinthians should already be separated from them, so that they may know that even among themselves they needed to maintain this discipline of avoiding the wicked.