Welcome to The Daily, where we study the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, every day.

Read more about Project23 and partner with us as we teach every verse of the Bible on video.

Our text today is 1 Corinthians 5:6-8.

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. — 1 Corinthians 5:6–8

Paul moves from confronting one man's sin to confronting the entire church's tolerance of it, and he does it with a picture everyone in Corinth understood: leaven.

1. Leaven is quiet.
2. Leaven is small.
3. Leaven works invisibly.

Yet once it's mixed in, it spreads through the whole batch of dough. It doesn't matter if it starts in a corner—it ends everywhere. That's Paul's point.

Sin never stays personal. It always becomes communal.

• A private compromise eventually affects public integrity.
• A hidden lust eventually damages relationships.
• A tolerated sin eventually shapes a church's culture.

Just like leaven, sin spreads beyond the person who commits it.

That's exactly why Paul confronted Corinth so strongly in the previous passage. Discipline wasn't only about the man—it was about the whole church, because what one person hides, the whole body eventually breathes.

This is why Paul commands them to "cleanse out the old leaven." He's pulling from Passover imagery. Every Jewish family searched their home by candlelight, removing every crumb of leaven so the new batch would remain pure. Even a pinch of the old dough could corrupt everything new.

Paul is applying that same spiritual search to the church:

• Remove the old habits.
• Remove the excuses.
• Remove the tolerated sins.
• Remove the attitudes that spread like rot.

If we want a healed church, we must remove what is poisoning both the individual and the body. This is not just about your life. This is about our life together.

But Paul ends with a powerful statement: "As you really are unleavened…" In other words, you're already made new. So live like it. Your identity is clean. Your standing is pure. Your church has been washed. So stop kneading in old corruption. Stop letting sin expand. Stop pretending one compromise won't spread to others.

This is Paul's call to you. This is Paul's call to your church. This is Paul's call to every fellowship that wants to remain spiritually healthy. Remove what spreads death. Keep what spreads life.

DO THIS:

Do a "Passover sweep" of both your personal life and your church involvement. Remove whatever small thing you've been tolerating before it grows and affects more than you realize.

ASK THIS:

1. Where have I underestimated the spread of a small sin?
2. How might my compromise be shaping others around me?
3. What leaven needs to be removed so my life—and my church—can stay healthy?

PRAY THIS:

Father, show me anything in my life that's quietly spreading and corrupting what You want to renew. Give me courage to remove it and help me strengthen the purity of my church as well. Make me unleavened with sincerity and truth. Amen.

PLAY THIS:

"Give Us Clean Hands"

Welcome to The Daily, where we study the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, every day.

Read more about Project23 and partner with us as we teach every verse of the Bible on video.

Our text today is 1 Corinthians 5:1-2.

The sin in Corinth wasn't subtle, hidden, or debatable. It was so scandalous that even the surrounding pagan culture was shocked by it. Paul writes:

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. — 1 Corinthians 5:1–2

Paul cannot believe what he's hearing. A man in the church is committing sexual sin that even unbelievers reject, and instead of grieving over it, the church is arrogant about its tolerance. This is not just a Corinth problem—it's a problem in today's church as well.

Sexual sin is no longer shocking in the culture, but the deeper issue is that it's no longer shocking in the church. Porn has become normalized. Cohabitation is assumed. Adultery is reframed as emotional escape. Lust is dismissed as human nature. Same‑sex behavior is being affirmed rather than confronted by churches that are more focused on appearing compassionate than being holy. We are treating as normal what God calls destructive.

This is where Paul's words cut through our excuses. The church is never more vulnerable than when it stops being distinct. And if we lose our distinction, we lose our witness. We cannot rescue a world we're trying to resemble. Believers today must reclaim what Corinth forgot: holiness isn't harsh—holiness is healing.

Calling sin what it is doesn't crush people; it frees them. Truth is not the enemy of compassion; truth is what makes compassion meaningful. Love doesn't celebrate what destroys people; love confronts what destroys people so they can be restored.

If we stay silent, people stay trapped. If we stay passive, people stay wounded. If we tolerate what God calls sin, we slowly become a church shaped by culture instead of by Scripture.

This moment demands courage. Courage to grieve what God grieves. Courage to stand for truth when it's unpopular. Courage to gently persuade others toward the life God blesses. Courage to be different in a world that demands sameness.

We cannot change hearts, but we can point to the One who does. We cannot force holiness, but we can model it with conviction and compassion. You don't persuade people by blending in; you persuade them by living what they desperately need.

This is why Paul urges the church to mourn rather than shrug, to confront rather than ignore, and to lead rather than imitate. The church must be the place where truth restores—not where sin hides.

DO THIS:

Ask God to reveal any area of sexual compromise or complacency in your life. Confess it honestly, and commit to helping others walk in truth with humility and courage.

ASK THIS:

1. Have I become numb to sexual sin—in myself or in the church?
2. Where have I stayed silent when I should have stood for truth?
3. How can I lovingly help someone move toward holiness?

PRAY THIS:

Father, open my eyes to anything that mirrors the world instead of Christ. Give me courage to stand for truth—even when it's costly—and compassion to help others walk in it. Make me a voice of clarity and a vessel of restoration. Amen.

PLAY THIS:

"Refiner"