---
title: 1 Corinthians 5:2
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-corinthians-5-2/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-corinthians-5-2.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: 1 Corinthians 5:2
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# 1 Corinthians 5:2

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been stricken with grief and have removed from your fellowship the man who did this?

## JW Usage

JWs cite 1 Corinthians 5 as the primary scriptural basis for disfellowshipping. The command to "remove the wicked person from among yourselves" (v. 13) is applied broadly to anyone who commits a serious sin and fails to demonstrate sufficient repentance before a judicial committee of elders. The congregation's failure to act in verse 2 ("you did not mourn") is used to argue that tolerance of sin is itself sinful.

## Protestant Usage

First Corinthians 5 addresses a specific, extreme case: a man in an ongoing incestuous relationship "of a kind not even found among the nations" (v. 1). The congregation was boasting about their tolerance (v. 2). Paul's instruction was corrective for this extraordinary situation. Crucially, 2 Corinthians 2:6-8 shows the outcome: Paul urges the same congregation to "kindly forgive and comfort" the man, because "the reproof given by the majority is sufficient." The discipline had a defined purpose (repentance) and a defined endpoint (restoration with comfort). The Watchtower's shunning policy has neither: reinstatement can take years, social contact remains forbidden during the entire process, and even after reinstatement the stigma endures. Paul's model is restorative discipline with a short arc toward reconciliation; the Watchtower's model extends isolation indefinitely as institutional punishment.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Admonish Him as a Brother — The Verse That Undoes Shunning](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/shunning-admonish-as-brother.md) — 2 Thessalonians 3:14–15 / 2 Corinthians 2:6–8 / Matthew 18:17 [Practice]
- [No Biblical Warrant for Family Shunning](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/shunning-family-no-biblical-warrant.md) — 1 Timothy 5:8 / Luke 15:4–7 / Matthew 9:10–13 [Practice]