Free Bible Commentary
“1 Corinthians 5:6-13”
Categories: 1 Corinthians“Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
“I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler — not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES.”
---End of Scripture verses---
We said yesterday that one reason congregational discipline is so important is that it is an effort to save an erring soul. Another reason it is so vital is that it is designed to keep a congregation pure and holy. Just “a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough” (verse 6). Just as a very small amount of yeast will cause an entire loaf of bread to rise, it doesn’t take much of a bad influence to permeate the whole flock of God’s sheep.
I actually believe it is the permissive attitude of the brethren in the church there that Paul has in mind when he wrote about the leaven. But it all stemmed from a Christian who was living a life that was anything but Christ-like. These brethren needed to “deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh” (verse 5). And they also needed to “clean out the old leaven” of tolerance and permissiveness that caused them to treat the body of Christ as an unholy thing (verse 7).
Paul said we are “not to associate with immoral people” (verse 9). He says that in reference to “keeping company” with a “so-called brother” when he is living like the devil. The idea of “association” or “keeping company” is “socializing” or having “fellowship” on a purely social level. If we “hang out” with an erring brother in Christ and have a fun time socializing with him, he won’t get the message that he really needs to change his ways. We must be careful to not condone the sinful behavior of a straying Christian by treating him like everything is okay when it is anything but.
It IS okay to “mingle” with the “immoral people of the world” (verse 10), because we actually need to do that in order to have a positive influence on THEM, and to try to win them over to the Lord. Jesus associated with the tax collectors and sinners of the world to try to save them. But we must be very careful to balance that freedom with the understanding that the “immoral people of the world” can have a BAD influence on US. “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals’” (1 Corinthians 15:33). If we are always “hanging out” with ungodly people, their “leavening” influence will inevitably take a toll on us spiritually. My mother used to tell me, “Show me who you run with and I will tell you what you are!”
Please read 1 Corinthians 6:1-8 for tomorrow.
Have a great day!
- Louie Taylor
