Bible Reading Challenge #11
I encourage you to read Eugene Peterson’s commentary/translation of 1 Corinthians 5:6–13:
6–8 Your flip and callous arrogance in these things bothers me. You pass it off as a small thing, but it’s anything but that. Yeast, too, is a “small thing,” but it works its way through a whole batch of bread dough pretty fast. So get rid of this “yeast.” Our true identity is flat and plain, not puffed up with the wrong kind of ingredient. The Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has already been sacrificed for the Passover meal, and we are the Unraised Bread part of the Feast. So let’s live out our part in the Feast, not as raised bread swollen with the yeast of evil, but as flat bread—simple, genuine, unpretentious.
9–13 I wrote you in my earlier letter that you shouldn’t make yourselves at home among the sexually promiscuous. I didn’t mean that you should have nothing at all to do with outsiders of that sort. Or with criminals, whether blue- or white-collar. Or with spiritual phonies, for that matter. You’d have to leave the world entirely to do that! But I am saying that you shouldn’t act as if everything is just fine when a friend who claims to be a Christian is promiscuous or crooked, is flip with God or rude to friends, gets drunk or becomes greedy and predatory. You can’t just go along with this, treating it as acceptable behavior. I’m not responsible for what the outsiders do, but don’t we have some responsibility for those within our community of believers? God decides on the outsiders, but we need to decide when our brothers and sisters are out of line and, if necessary, clean house.
3 Things I Take from This
Non-believers will live in sin—why wouldn’t they? Our concern should be less about managing their behavior and more about their salvation. Transformation begins only after someone encounters Christ.
Believers are expected to live in a way that aligns with Christ. Perfection isn’t attainable, but the pursuit of holiness is. We all wrestle with sin, but the real danger comes when we stop wrestling and instead participate openly and unashamedly.
The church is responsible for its members. We cannot sit idly by and condone immorality of any kind within our fellowship. For too long, the church has been loudly opposed to some sins while suspiciously silent on others. Paul’s warning is clear: a little “leaven” corrupts the whole loaf. We must actively confront sin—within our walls and within ourselves—so that the church remains pure, genuine, and true to Christ.
