1 Corinthians 5:6

6 It is not right for you to be proud! You know the saying, "A little bit of yeast makes the whole batch of dough rise." 1

1 Corinthians 5:6 Meaning and Commentary

1 Corinthians 5:6

Your glorying is not good
Their glorying in their outward flourishing condition, in their riches and wealth, and in their ministers, in their wisdom and parts when under such an humbling dispensation; and especially if their glorying was in the sin itself, and their connivance at it, it was far from being good, it was very criminal, as the consequence of it was dangerous:

know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
This, in nature, is what everybody knows; and the proverb, which is much used by the Jews F6, was common in the mouths of all, and the meaning of it easy to be understood: thus, whether applied to the leaven of false doctrine, nothing is more manifest, than when this is let alone, and a stop is not put to it, it increases to more ungodliness; or to vice and immorality, as here; which if not taken notice of by a church, is not faithfully reproved and severely censured, as the case requires, will endanger the whole community; it may spread by example, and, under the connivance of the church, to the corrupting of good manners, and infecting of many.


FOOTNOTES:

F6 Neve Shalom apud Caphtor, fol. 41. 1.

1 Corinthians 5:6 In-Context

5 you are to hand this man over to Satan for his body to be destroyed, so that his spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord.
6 It is not right for you to be proud! You know the saying, "A little bit of yeast makes the whole batch of dough rise."
7 You must remove the old yeast of sin so that you will be entirely pure. Then you will be like a new batch of dough without any yeast, as indeed I know you actually are. For our Passover Festival is ready, now that Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
8 Let us celebrate our Passover, then, not with bread having the old yeast of sin and wickedness, but with the bread that has no yeast, the bread of purity and truth.

Cross References 1

  • 1. 5.6Galatians 5.9.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.