Deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit MAY be saved (1 Cor.5:5)

There are some who believe that the wicked man spoken about in this passage did not lose his salvation even though he was a fornicator who committed a horrific crime. Some of course will say that “he wasn’t saved to begin with” but this man was a member of this particular church and a brother, so it’s more likely that he at one point was a true christian. When we read that this man was to be delivered to Satan so that his spirit MAY be saved, it doesn’t say that this procedure definitely WILL succeed. This however was an attempt to save his soul. IF the man was already saved (as some suggest) then why can we read that he was to be delivered to Satan so that he may be saved, if he already was? Paul criticized the leaders of the church for not having reacted concerning this man and his grievous sin, and put him away from among them. To say that this man was saved despite his fornication, is to say that unrepentant sinners are welcomed into the kingdom of God.

1 Cor. 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—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 idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. ²For 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.

The same Greek word translated wicked in that verse is also found in Mt. 13:49,50:

This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Also, the same word translated fornication in 1 Cor. 5:1 is found in Gal. 5:19-21:

¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, ²⁰Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, ²¹Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

It looks like the same man is spoken about yet again in 2 Cor.2:

¹But I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness. ²For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me? —.⁵But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all. ⁶Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. ⁷So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. ⁸Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him. ⁹For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.