What immorality problem in 1 Corinthians grieved Paul, and did the church deal with it?
In 1 Corinthians chapter 5, gross immorality grieved Paul—especially that a believer would stoop to such a low level while the church failed to address it. He confronted it in his first letter, and 2 Corinthians indicates the church evidently corrected matters, showing his letter did not fall on deaf ears.
Les explains that the Corinthians had caused Paul grief through dissension and carnality, and they had not grown spiritually. They sent him a letter with many questions about various problems, and among those problems was the gross immorality of chapter 5. It grieved Paul that a believer would stoop so low and that the church was not addressing it, so he dealt with it in the first letter. Later, 2 Corinthians seems to show that many things were corrected; his first letter did not fall on deaf ears. Since the second letter came months later, less than a year after the first, there had been time for them to clean up their act, and evidently they had done so.
More Questions
Was there opposition in the Corinthian church to disciplining the immoral man?
There was a minority in the church who opposed the discipline, like liberals today who say to leave the man alone because people are people.
Which chapter of 1 Corinthians is Paul referring to in 2 Corinthians when he mentions the wrongdoer?
The individual Paul refers to in 2 Corinthians is the man of 1 Corinthians 5, the chapter Paul deals with most, since Paul uses the pronoun 'his,' showing he means one man, an individual.
Did Paul consider the man in 1 Corinthians 5 lost again after delivering him to Satan?
Paul does not put the immoral man of 1 Corinthians 5 back into a lost condition — he is simply in dire straits because he is living in gross immorality.