1 Corinthians 5:6

Modern

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven works through the whole batch of dough?

Traditional

Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

Literal

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Latin

Non est bona gloriatio vestra. Nescitis quia modicum fermentum totam massam corrumpit?

Greek

English

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven works through the whole batch of dough?

Yeast often symbolized sin (see Matthew 16:6, 12; Mark 8:15; Luke 12:1; Galatians 5:9). Jews ceremonially removed yeast from their homes before the annual Passover meal (Exodus 12:19; 13:7).
Get rid of the old leaven: If left unchecked, sin could spread throughout the church, just as yeast spreads through dough.

Paul addresses sexual immorality in the church and tells the Christians to remove an unashamed wrongdoer from fellowship.

Theme notes and profiles

Galatians 5:9
A little leaven works through the whole batch of dough.
1 Corinthians 15:33
Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
James 4:16
As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil.
1 Corinthians 5:2
And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been stricken with grief and have removed from your fellowship the man who did this?
1 Corinthians 3:21
Therefore, stop boasting in men. All things are yours,
Luke 13:21
It is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into three measures of flour, until all of it was leavened.”
1 Corinthians 4:18–19
Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you.
Matthew 13:33
He 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.”
2 Timothy 2:17
…and the talk of such men will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus,
Matthew 16:6–12
“Watch out!” Jesus told them. “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”