1 Corinthians 5:6-8

Scripture: 1 Cor. 5:6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

1 Cor. 5:7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

1 Cor. 5:8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Teaching: Paul, here, is admonishing the Corinthian church for allowing sexual immorality amongst its members, in particular, in a man having relations with his step-mother. But Paul admonishes them for “boasting” – what were they boasting about? It’s unlikely they were boasting about one of their congregation having these kinds of relations – remember, that kind of sexual relationship was immoral even to the pagan Greeks (v. 1). As Paul then transitions towards an illustration of how sin (in this metaphor “leaven” or “yeast” propagates throughout a lump of dough), it seems that the Corinthians were bragging about how graceful and accepting they were of such sin. This was a gross over-indulgence in Christian freedom – essentially allowing all behaviors because Christ’s sacrifice covers them all. However, this is not the approach of one who lives by faith (Paul expounds upon this idea in many of his letters such as this one, Galatians, and Romans).

So, the church was sinning in their approving of sin. In verses 7-8, Paul illustrates that when even a little sin takes root in a church, it will only grow. Christ has already paid for all that sin, and thus, the church “is really unleavened” (i.e. sinless before the Lord). So why would they go on sinning, let alone bragging about what sin they allow in their church? It was foolish and stemmed from a prideful interpretation of their freedom in Christ from sin.

Takeaway: It is not honoring or celebrating of the grace of God in Christ to then revel in sin. What we approve of tells much about us. As Paul says in Romans 14:22 “The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.” As Paul detailed in chapter 2, the wisdom of God comes to us by His Spirit and at His leading we come to know “the bread of sincerity and truth” (the Spirit-led life) over the “leaven of malice and evil” (the enslavement of sin). Believing the Gospel is the essential catalyst that enables this kind of understanding, so it starts there. We are given the Holy Spirit when we believe. By Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, we are no longer slaves to sin, we are the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). Do not continue living like you are still in bondage to sin nor disbelieving in the power of God to break others out of it as well. Sometimes it is not pride but pity that leads us to accept sin as an unchangeable fact of life, and we think ourselves more Christ-like for endorsing or excusing it, because we care for that person. But the power of the Holy Spirit is all powerful because it is the power of God; and it is not Christ-like to accept sin as an insurmountable fact of life. Jesus says in Matthew 7:7-11 and Luke 11:9-13 that when we call upon our Heavenly Father for good things – things in our life that are good for us and draw us closer to Him – He gives them every time by the power of the Holy Spirit. God gives us the power to overcome sin when we call out to Him for it. So rather than endorsing or excusing in, let us be people who trust in the Lord for all things, believing that He who started in us a good work will see it through to completion and that He does not call us to sanctify ourselves, but rather, give us all we need when we call to Him for it.