Does 1 Corinthians 5:11 primarily refer to the church, or does it include the family of that man?

This text is from a transcript of a talk by David Gooding, entitled ‘The Christian Philosophy of Man’ (1994).

'But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one' (1 Corinthians 5:11).

If a brother is known to be an excessively covetous man, with a very bad reputation in the world as such, or if he is a fornicator, and therefore has to be put away, does his wife, who might be a very godly woman, have to stop eating with him at home? And must all the children just throw him out, or something?

My answer to that would be, no. It refers to the church qua church. Why does the church have to put him away? For two reasons:

1. To deliver him to Satan (1 Corinthians 5:5), so that by the disciplines of life he might be brought to repentance, even if it means his physical suffering. The church therefore removes its protection from him and exposes him to the attacks of the devil.

2. The church has to do it for the sake of its own and the gospel's reputations. If such a person were allowed to attend the church and members frequently indulged in social contact with him, the world outside would get the impression that this kind of serious social sin didn't matter to them. That would destroy the very reputation of the gospel. So the members of the church are not only to excommunicate him but to avoid social contact.

That said, it doesn't mean that the elders or someone so gifted shouldn't from time to time try and contact the man to help him and bring him to repentance. But mere social contact, as though it didn't matter what he'd done, is another thing.

In the home with his wife and children, that's another situation altogether. I don't know that the Scripture requires them somehow to put their father out at all.

'Does 'not even to eat' refer to the Lord's Table or include it?'

Well doubtless, the excommunication would exclude him from the Lord's Supper, but I suspect the phrase also includes social interaction with such a person.