But 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.
But now I have written - "now," not time; but, 'the case being so'-namely, that 'to avoid fornicators,' etc., of the world, you would have to leave it altogether. So "now" Hebrews 11:16. Thus we avoid making the apostle now retract what he had before commanded.
I have written - i:e., my meaning in what I wrote was, etc.
A brother - contrasted with a 'fornicator, etc., of the world' (1 Corinthians 5:10). There is less danger in associating with open worldlings than with carnal professors. Here, as in Ephesians 5:3; Ephesians 5:5, "covetousness" is joined with "fornication," the common fount of both being 'the fierce longing of the creature, which has turned from God, to fill itself with inferior objects of sense' (Trench). Hence, idolatry and lust go together; and the covetous man is termed an "idolater" (Numbers 25:1-2). The Corinthians were not open idolaters, but ate things offered to idols, making a compromise with the pagan; so they connived at fornication, (1 Corinthians 8:4, etc.) Compare, similarly, fornication combined with idolatrous compromise, after the pattern of Israel (Revelation 2:14).
No not to eat - at the same table; whether at the love feasts ( agapai (G26)) or in private, much more at the Lord's table. Too often the guests 'are not as children in one family, but like a heterogeneous crowd at an inn' (Bengel) (cf. 2 John 1:10:11).