Paul said to hand someone over to Satan as a form of severe church discipline intended to bring about repentance and restoration. It was not vengeance or condemnation, but a last resort to confront unrepentant sin and protect the purity of the church. The goal was spiritual correction, not eternal judgment.
In 1 Corinthians, Paul addresses a man living in gross immorality:
“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you… that a man has his father’s wife! And you are puffed up… Should you not rather have mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you?”
(1 Corinthians 5:1–2)
The church had tolerated this sin instead of grieving and correcting it. Paul responds firmly:
“Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”
(1 Corinthians 5:5)
To hand someone over to Satan meant removing them from the fellowship and spiritual covering of the church, placing them back into the world’s domain. The aim was not to destroy the person, but to awaken them through hardship and consequences so that they might repent and be saved.
Paul uses similar language with Hymenaeus and Alexander:
“Whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.”
(1 Timothy 1:20)
This shows that such discipline is corrective. It is a hard measure for hardened hearts.
Church discipline is always to be done with humility and love, following biblical steps (Matthew 18:15–17). Excommunication is for the unrepentant who refuse correction. The hope is restoration, not rejection.
Later, the man in Corinth appears to have repented, and Paul instructs:
“You ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow.”
(2 Corinthians 2:7)
This confirms the purpose of such discipline, restoration through repentance and reintegration into the body.
