Neville Goddard on 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read 1 Corinthians 5 in context

Scripture Focus

1It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.

2And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.

3For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,

4In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

5To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

6Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

7Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

8Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

9I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:

10Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.

11But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.

12For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?

13But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

1 Corinthians 5:1-13

Biblical Context

Paul reports a serious case of fornication among believers and calls the church to discipline so the body remains holy. He emphasizes purging the old leaven and keeping the feast with sincerity and truth, judging what is inside the community.

Neville's Inner Vision

Within Neville's lens, Corinth is your inner state of consciousness. The 'fornicator' is a belief or habit that has somehow claimed space in your sense of self—perhaps a cherished anger, lust, or pride—that would defile the whole lump of your awareness. The 'father’s wife' marks a union with a pattern you learned to worship; the call to mourn rather than boast is a call to awaken to the reality that these patterns cannot nourish the real you. To deliver such an one unto Satan is not punishment but a collapse of that belief through the power of your imagination. When you gather in spirit, with the authority of the I AM, you permit the old structure to fall away so that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus—the day you awaken to your true state. The leaven of malice and wickedness is to be purged; you replace it with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, living as if you already are the Passover.