1 Corinthians 5:6

6 It is no good thing--this which you make the ground of your boasting. Do you not know that a little yeast corrupts the whole of the dough?

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

4 In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are all assembled and my spirit is with you, together with the power of our Lord Jesus,
5 I have handed over such a man to Satan for the destruction of his body, that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord Jesus.
6 It is no good thing--this which you make the ground of your boasting. Do you not know that a little yeast corrupts the whole of the dough?
7 Get rid of the old yeast so that you may be dough of a new kind; for in fact you *are* free from corruption. For our Passover Lamb has already been offered in sacrifice--even Christ.
8 Therefore let us keep our festival not with old yeast nor with the yeast of what is evil and mischievous, but with bread free from yeast--the bread of transparent sincerity and of truth.
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