In Matt 18:15–20, Jesus taught that if people do not repent of their sins they must be excluded from the local church. And he called the church to do this. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul followed Jesus' teaching. He told the whole local church—not just the elders—to expel an unrepentant sinner from their number. In 2 Cor 2:6, Paul referred to a punishment inflicted on a straying member by "the majority." Again, he is not writing to the elders but to the congregation as a whole.
