6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.” 1 Corinthians 5: 6-13 LSB
1 Corinthians 5: 6-13
…28Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29How much more severely do you think one deserves to be punished who has trampled on the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and insulted the Spirit of grace? 30For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge His people.”… Hebrews 10: 28-30
V. 6 Your boasting is not good - The church is the body of Christ, His representatives in the world, the light to a dark place, but the Corinthian church only offered more darkness. You are proud not only when God hates pride, but you have nothing to be proud about, you should be ashamed of your state, humbled that you have not matured spiritually and you have allowed such grotesque sin to go unconfronted. I have hundreds of people at my work who want to be foremen. They want the title, and now adays it comes with a hefty raise. The title thing I don't get, wanting to make a better living for your family, totally understandable, but the title and the money represent taking on a greater amount of responsibility, including confronting others about their performance, and no one wants to do this. I hate having to do it too, but I agreed to the position I am in, and part of that agreement is that I hold the foreman to the expectations for his job description. We have already discussed before that people will sacrifice the truth for unity, overlook things because of title or nepotism, and just to avoid the uncomfortable nature of confrontation, but this ultimately destroys businesses, churches and nations.
…17The highway of the upright leads away from evil; he who guards his way protects his life. 18Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. 19It is better to be lowly in spirit among the humble than to divide the spoil with the proud.… Proverbs 16: 17-19
…15Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil. 17Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do, yet fails to do it, is guilty of sin.… James 4: 15-17
V. 6b Don't you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough - Yeast represents influence and this can either be good or bad. Paul's use here is in the negative, that this unconfronted sin, though not all are were participating in it, yet it was permeating the whole church and destroying it's testimony to the world. Preaching the gospel of repentance and salvation, but then doing nothing about this case of incest is like digging a trench while someone else is filling it in behind you. Those outside rightly shake their head.
32Although it is the smallest of all seeds, yet it grows into the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.” 33He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into three measures of flour, until all of it was leavened.” 34Jesus spoke all these things to the crowds in parables. He did not tell them anything without using a parable.… Matthew 13: 32-34
…6“Watch out!” Jesus told them. “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 7 They discussed this among themselves and concluded, “It is because we did not bring any bread.” 8Aware of their conversation, Jesus said, “You of little faith, why are you debating among yourselves about having no bread?…
…9Do you still not understand? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? 10Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? 11How do you not understand that I was not telling you about bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”…
12Then they understood that He was not telling them to beware of the leaven used in bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Matthew 16: 6-12
MacArthur - A large congregation, an impressive Sunday school, active witnessing and visitation and counseling, and every other sort of good program give no protection or justification to a church that is not faithful in cleansing itself. When sin is willingly, or even neglectfully, allowed to go unchallenged and undisciplined, a larger church will be in danger of a larger malignancy. - PA
V. 7 Get rid of the old yeast - When the people of Israel left Egypt they had a Passover feast, where they ate a lamb without blemish, painted the blood of the lamb on the door posts of their houses, and they ate unleavened bread. The dietary restrictions of the Jews didn't make them holy, it didn't change their inward being, but outwardly it taught of that particular need, and it brought in the concept of clean and unclean. The yeast there was the influence that their captors had become to them. They were slaves in Egypt, not only because of force, but because they had adopted the culture and sins of that people. The bread had no power in itself, but was a great learning tool and pointed to the bread of heaven, Christ.
Krell adds that "In 1 Cor 5:7-9 Paul couples the imperative to the indicative: Clean out the leaven so that you can start over unleavened bread, because that is what you are. The imperative to clean out the old leaven is predicated on the indicative: they are unleavened. In other words, Paul tells them to be who they are, to live like Christians. Who they are is revealed in what they do. What they do comes from who they are. Paul’s point is clear: Sin spreads in the church as leaven does in dough (cf. Gal 5:9; Mark 8:15). Sin always spreads and contaminates if left alone, just as poison, weeds, and cancer do. Eventually the whole moral fabric of the congregation would suffer if the believers did not expunge this sin. Thus, we must purge the church of sin for the church stands or falls together. (How to Handle a Scandal) - PA
14And this day will be a memorial for you, and you are to celebrate it as a feast to the LORD, as a permanent statute for the generations to come. 15For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you are to remove the leaven from your houses. Whoever eats anything leavened from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. 16On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly, and another on the seventh day. You must not do any work on those days, except to prepare the meals—that is all you may do.… Exodus 12: 14-16
…34“Sir,” they said, “give us this bread at all times.” 35 Jesus answered, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst. 36But as I stated, you have seen Me and still you do not believe.… John 6: 34-36
…16So from now on we regard no one according to the flesh. Although we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:… 2 Corinthians 5: 16-18
…18For I tell you that I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.” 19And He took the bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body, given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 20In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.… Luke 22: 18-20
But with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth - God does not want a mere outward ceremony, a festival. He desires and demands actual changed hearts. Nodding your head in agreeance or saying yes, but not doing what you agreed to is not sincere, not honest.
Let us (present tense - continually) celebrate the feast - What did the Passover Feast remind the Jews about? The fact that they had been delivered from bondage in Egypt and thus they were commanded to celebrate this feast yearly as a memorial of their deliverance. Paul continues his use of the analogy of the Passover in the lives of the Corinthians, but uses the present tense which calls not for an annual remembrance, but for a daily remembrance! The saints were to make this their lifestyle. "Our every thought, every plan, every intention should be under Christ’s control." (MacArthur) - PA
…20Will not the Day of the LORD be darkness and not light, even gloom with no brightness in it? 21“I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies. 22Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; for your peace offerings of fattened cattle I will have no regard.… Amos 5: 20-22
…7You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you: 8‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. 9They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’ ”… Matthew 15: 7-9
Vs. 9-10 Not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral - They are not a shame to you. They do not claim to be born again, children of God, belonging to the same body as you. We are actually commanded to take the gospel to the lost, to give the message of repentance and reconciliation.
14Later, as they were eating, Jesus appeared to the Eleven and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. 15And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.… Mark 16: 14-16
…31Jesus answered, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” Luke 5: 31-32
V. 11 Do not even eat with such people - If they claim to be a Christian and continue in unrepentance, then do not associate with them. Some churches will not do this, and even say that this is not required because they hold a hyper dispensationalist view that says, "we are now in a dispensation of grace so we will just love them through it." They will allow these people to still participate in home groups and I have even seen them be deacons and Sunday School teachers. There is nothing in Scripture to indicate such a change in stance, this goes back to their desire to be like being greater than their ability to love. They are kinder than God I suppose; it again makes light of Christ's life and death.
1What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer? 3Or aren’t you aware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?… Romans 6: 1-3
…15Consider also that our Lord’s patience brings salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom God gave him. 16He writes this way in all his letters, speaking in them about such matters. Some parts of his letters are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17Therefore, beloved, since you already know these things, be on your guard so that you will not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure standing.… 2 Peter 3: 15-17
Vs. 12-13 Expel the wicked person from among you - Plain and simple, that's your job. It's not what you may want to here, not what you may want to do, but if you won't then you need to step down, you are not a shepherd. You are not about God's honor, but rather your own.
…8(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— 9if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. 10Such punishment is specially reserved for those who indulge the corrupt desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and self-willed, they are unafraid to slander glorious beings.… 2 Peter 2: 8-10
…4You are to follow the LORD your God and fear Him. Keep His commandments and listen to His voice; serve Him and hold fast to Him. 5Such a prophet or dreamer must be put to death, because he has advocated rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery; he has tried to turn you from the way in which the LORD your God has commanded you to walk. So you must purge the evil from among you. 6If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (which neither you nor your fathers have known,… Deuteronomy 13: 4-6
Craig Keener - The Old Testament often commanded God’s people to purge evildoers from among their ranks, normally by execution (Deut 13:5; 17:7; 19:19; 21:21; 22:21, 24; 24:7). Otherwise, the unrepentant offender could remove God’s blessing from the whole community and bring about the death of others (Josh 7:5, 25). Here the evildoer is purged from the community by being banished; banishment was a common punishment in the Roman period. In Judaism, exclusion from the community was a spiritual equivalent of execution, applied in the New Testament period to capital crimes of the Old Testament (see comment on 1 Cor 5:2; capital sentences of Jewish courts could not be legally carried out without Roman permission).( IVPBBCNT)
Wicked (evil, bad) (4190)(poneros from poneo = work or toil, Robertson says the idea is that labor is an annoyance, bad, evil; Noun poneria derived from poneros) means evil including evil, malignant character, pernicious (see Webster 1828 definition below), that which is morally or socially worthless, wicked, base, bad, degenerate. Poneros denotes determined, aggressive, and fervent evil that actively opposes what is good. Poneros is not just bad in character (like kakos - see below), but bad in effect (injurious)! Poneros describes evil in active opposition to good. It means not only evil in its nature but viciously evil in its influence and actively harmful. Poneros used to describe Satan (ho poneros = "Evil one"), the god of this age, who is corrupting man and dragging him to destruction. This denotes someone who is not content in being corrupt themselves. They seek to corrupt others and draw them into the same destruction! - PA
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