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 5:9-10.

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people — not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. — 1 Corinthians 5:9–10

Paul clears up a massive misunderstanding. The Corinthians assumed he meant, "Cut off contact with sinful people entirely." But that was never God's strategy. We don't reach the world by abandoning it, avoiding it, or hiding from it.

Paul's point is far sharper: Christians are not commanded to avoid the world. Christians are commanded to discern the church.

Jesus Himself ate with sinners, welcomed sinners, and loved sinners. But Paul warns believers to be cautious around professing Christians who live openly in sin without repentance—those who claim Christ while rejecting His authority. That's where the real threat lies.

Unbelievers acting like unbelievers doesn't corrupt the church. Believers acting like unbelievers without shame does. When the church begins to affirm what God condemns, the confusion spreads. The witness weakens. The church slowly becomes the very culture it's called to rescue.

That's why Paul says you'd "have to leave the world" to avoid sinners outside the faith. The danger isn't out there. The danger is when what's out there walks into the church, refuses to repent, and finds applause instead of correction. Your mission is in the world—your discernment is in the church.

So be wise about who shapes your spiritual life. Move toward unbelievers with compassion and conviction. But be cautious with believers who live in open rebellion while claiming the name of Christ. Discernment isn't harsh—it's holy. It protects your heart. It protects your relationships. And it protects the church you love.

DO THIS:

Evaluate your closest Christian relationships. Deepen connections with believers who strengthen your walk with Christ, and set boundaries with those who pull you away.

ASK THIS:

1. Who influences my spiritual life the most right now?
2. Are they pushing me toward Christ or pulling me toward compromise?
3. Where do I need to practice healthier discernment?

PRAY THIS:

Father, give me wisdom to love the world like Jesus did while discerning the church like Paul taught. Guard my heart, shape my relationships, and keep me faithful to You. Amen.

PLAY THIS:

"Build My Life"

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"