1 Corinthians 5:6-7

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Corinthians 5:1-7

Church discipline. I. FLAGRANT SIN IS NOT TO BE TOLERATED IN THE CHURCH . Though the precepts of Christianity are most pure, professors are sometimes impure. The Corinthian Church furnished a deplorable example. The sin of one of its members was a sin which was "not even among the Gentiles." Occasionally occurring among them, but exceptional even in such debased communities; held in general reprobation, not countenanced by their laws. Into the purest society a great... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Corinthians 5:1-8

Excommunication of an incestuous offender. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Corinthians 5:6

Your glorying; rather, the subject of your boasting, the point on which you glorify yourselves. The Greek word does not mean the act of boasting, but the thing of which we boast. Not good . The Greek word is not agathon, but kalon, an almost untranslatable word, which implies all moral beauty, and resembles the English word "fair" or "noble." When he says that it is "not good," he uses the figure called litotēs; i.e. he employs an expression intentionally too weak, that it may be... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Corinthians 5:6

The lesson of the leaven. It is very confidently affirmed that leaven is always used in a had sense in Scripture, and is the illustration of the working of evil principle. Some forcing of Scripture is, however, necessary if a bad sense must be always found; and while we must admit that leavening is, in measure, a corrupting process, we should also recognize that the permeating influence of leaven may be used to illustrate the advance and extension of good principle. Undoubtedly it is... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Corinthians 5:6-7

"Purge out the old leaven." The apostle sought the illustrations with which he enforced Christian doctrine and duty from every source, Hebrew and Gentile alike. In this passage he derives, from the practices of his countrymen during the festival of the Passover, a figure by which he brings before his readers the necessity of moral purity in life and in fellowship. As the Jews were accustomed at the approach of the feast to search out every scrap of leaven to be found in their houses, that... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Corinthians 5:6-13

The true Church a feast. "Your glorying is not good," etc. There are numerous Churches, but only one true Church, viz. that community of men who possess the Spirit and exemplify the character of Jesus Christ. These verses lead us to look upon the true Church— I. In its INTERNAL ENJOYMENTS . It is called here a "feast." Truly the association of such Christly spirited men is a "feast" of the sublimest kind, a feast to each and all. A "feast:" 1. Because it contains the choicest... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Corinthians 5:6-13

Supplementary views and explanations. Was nothing necessary except to get rid of the offender? That was to be done, but something else was quite as much of an exigency. Here, then, we see the extent to which the enormous evil had spread, for the whole Church had been infected. If the vice had assumed in one man the completest form of social iniquity, what was the state of the atmosphere in which this was possible? Such corruption was not sporadic: the whole air was poisoned; and in this... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Corinthians 5:7

Purge out therefore. The word "therefore" is absent from the best manuscripts, and the abruptness is more emphatic without it. No doubt the metaphor was suggested by the fact that St. Paul was writing about the time of the Passover ( Acts 16:8 ). The most essential requisite of the Jewish regulations, with which his whole training had made him so familiar, was the absolute putting away, and even destruction, of every trace of leaven, which was diligently sought for the day before the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Corinthians 5:7

"Christ our Passover." The connection of this illustration with the passage in which it occurs is obvious. The Jews commenced the Feast of Unleavened Bread with the slaying, roasting, and eating of the Paschal lamb. Now, the apostle has been urging the Corinthians to moral purity, and has enjoined them to put away the leaven of wickedness, and keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth; and, as a motive to do this, he reminds them that the Christian dispensation is as... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Corinthians 5:7

The Christian Church as unleavened. "As ye are unleavened." The idea of the Church is of a pure and unadulterated and uncorrupted mass, and every individual member of the Church is under obligation to aid in securing and maintaining the purity. The Church must put out, purge out, and keep out, the very relics of the old leaven. Reference is made in the figure which St. Paul uses to the Jewish custom of searching for leaven, which was probably retained in the apostle's time. "Because... read more

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