Immorality was part of the culture of Corinth; it had come along with new believers when they came to Christ and became part of the church. The church leaders had been reluctant to interfere with the 'personal lives' of their members. But Paul had previously told them to deal with people who persisted in sinful behaviour by withdrawing from fellowship with them. The pain of spiritual isolation was designed to bring sinners to their senses and help them to see that they must repent.
 

The Kingdom of God does not work like worldly power regimes. God does not have to prove anything, trap people into serving Him, or frighten them to obey Him. He already has everything, and He wins people into His home by loving them. Along the way, however, He allows apparently unfair things to trouble His people; but He is weaving them into a pattern, which makes perfect sense to Him – and one day will make sense to us too (Romans 8:28).
 

There are many differences between what the Bible says and the Greco-Roman culture, which continue to influence much of our contemporary world. How we think about, and manage, our deep inner desires is one example. God has implanted all of our appetites as natural instincts to enable us to regulate our energy levels, temperature, social interactions and reproduction. However sin has corrupted all of them in human beings.
 

Corinth was well known for its pagan temples. Those buildings, with their deific effigies, were not only for sacrifice and worship but also social meeting places, bars, restaurants and dens of immorality. They believed that their 'god' inhabited the building and made everything that happened there sacred. When people became followers of Jesus Christ, where could they meet to worship the only true God? They left the pagan temple but the synagogue no longer welcomed them. As they had no dedicated building (Acts 18:7-11) they probably met in homes or lecture halls.