Misinterpretations often portray this verse as authorizing physical violence, murder, or a curse of eternal damnation on the sinner, twisting the disciplinary excommunication into sadistic harm; in reality, delivering to Satan means removing church protection to face external consequences that humble and break fleshly sinfulness for potential salvation, not inflicting or wishing irreversible doom.
I Corinthians 5:5
King James Version (1769)
5 To 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.
Paul instructs the Corinthian church to excommunicate an unrepentant immoral member by handing him over to Satan’s destructive influence outside the protective fellowship, allowing the flesh—meaning sinful desires and possibly physical affliction—to be destroyed, with the redemptive purpose of prompting repentance so the spirit can be saved on the day of the Lord Jesus, emphasizing that severe church discipline serves ultimate restoration rather than vengeance.