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The phrase occurs twice:
1 Corinthians 5:5 To 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.
1 Timothy 1:20 Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.
It means to exclude from fellowship – to excommunicate.
This is shown by what Paul says to the Corinthians:
1 Corinthians 5:11 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...13...Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
The brother at Corinth was sinning by having a sexual relationship with his stepmother.
1 Corinthians 5:1 It 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.
Paul’s instruction was ‘put away from among yourselves that wicked person’. This is the equivalent to ‘deliver such an one unto Satan’.
‘For the destruction of the flesh’ means to bring the offender’s fleshly lust for his father’s wife to an end and cause him to repent.
Romans 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify (put to death) the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
‘Spirit’ here is not the ‘Holy Spirit’ but a way of thinking. We are to change the way that we think if we want to be saved when Christ returns.
Ephesians 4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
In his second letter we see that the recommended action has been successful and Paul exhorts them to restore the brother to fellowship.
2 Corinthians 2:6 Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. 7 So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. 8 Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him.
The commonly held view that Satan is a fallen angel, the enemy of God, is shown to be unsound by Paul’s statement that he has delivered Hymenaeus and Alexander unto Satan, ‘that they may learn not to blaspheme’.
The idea that Paul and Satan have an arrangement whereby Satan will teach Hymenaeus and Alexander not to blaspheme is absurd. It makes a great deal more sense to put men out of fellowship so that they can reconsider the gravity of their offence with a view to repentance and reconciliation.
To ‘deliver unto Satan’ is to put men out of Christ and back into the world, to be ruled by the ‘Satan’ of their own lusts and to live and die without hope.
1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Here is a link to information on the website you may find helpful:
Do you believe in a Devil: www.thisisyourbible.com/library/show/162
I hope you have found this helpful.
God bless you,
Glenn
