If anyone has any illusions of the early church being idyllic in any way then the letters to the Corinthians, and this chapter in particular, should shatter that illusion. There was sexual immorality in the church, and in this case it was worse than the world indulged in. Ie something even the pagans considered to be wrong, namely a man sleeping with his father's wife. Spiritual pride and immorality often go together. It happened in Corinth, it has happened with numerous tele-evangelists. Why is this so? Maybe if we become proud we lose much of God's protection and God let's see the consequences of relying on our own strength.
Worse still, the church was not even dealing with the matter properly. The guilty man was to be put out of the church and handed over to Satan for a time. What does "handed over to Satan" mean? It means the man would be denied church fellowship and left to take the consequences of his actions. We are often too squeamish about allowing people to suffer the consequences, but sometimes it is the only way they will come to their senses. And coming to his senses was Paul's purpose for the offender here.
We need to be very careful about any immorality for it can very easily spread. Note that Paul is talking about within the church when he says not to associate with sexually immoral people. When someone comes to Christ they are to start to live a Christlike life. Being in the church has responsibilities.
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