New Testament: 1Co 5.6

To read the Bible in a year, read First Corinthians 5 on August 23, In the year of our Lord Christ 2024

By Don Ruhl 

The Corinthian Church boasted of their tolerance, that they could have a member who had married his stepmother. Paul rebuked them for their attitude and for their lack of action against the fornicating member. 

He told them, “Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” (1 Corinthians 5.6). 

There are things in which we should glory and there are things in which we should be ashamed. The Corinthian Christians gloried in the wrong thing. They should have removed that member from their midst. Otherwise, tolerating such things would only lead to more immorality. 

Second Corinthians shows that they learned from Paul and did put away the member, but then, when that unnamed member repented, they would not forgive him and receive him back. So, in the second letter, Paul had to explain to them to forgive him and to accept him. 

Questions: 

• Do you know when to rebuke and when to forgive? 
• In what should we glory? 

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Don preaches with the Savage Street Church of Christ in Grants Pass, Oregon. 

Listen to his sermons here: GrantsPassChurchOfChrist.com