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1 Corinthians 5 · a question people ask

"Your boasting is not good." (5:6). Is all boasting wrong?

In the text

The letter doesn't say so. It has already said, "He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord." (1:31), and "Therefore let no one boast in men." (3:21). Here it says your boasting: "Your boasting is not good." (5:6), and goes straight on to the yeast and the lump. The verse doesn't say more about the boasting, and these notes don't either.

The verses

“Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump?”
1 Corinthians 5:6 · World English Bible
“that, as it is written, “He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.””
1 Corinthians 1:31 · World English Bible
“Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours,”
1 Corinthians 3:21 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 1 Corinthians 5

1 Corinthians 5: A new lump

1 Corinthians 5 calls Christ "our Passover" (5:7), in the same verse that says both "Purge out the old yeast" and "even as you are unleavened" (5:7). The next words are "Therefore let’s keep the feast" (5:8). In the WEB's 1 Corinthians, yeast stands only in 5:6-8.

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Last reviewed October 8, 2026. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions