Remember to press CTRL and F5 simultaneously when viewing an updated page/site. Or try emptying your browser cache. This should ensure that your web browser fetches a fresh copy of the page rather than serving up an out-dated copy from your own cache.
Also disable/deactivate any caching plugin(s).
Take a look at the WordPress Template Hierarchy.
Looking at the hierarchy, you will see that there are some other files that might be being used. For example, if is_home() is true, which it probably is since I take it that your front page is your main blog page, then if your theme has a home.php file, this one will be the one that is creating the output.
Also some themes (like the default WP themes) use a file loop.php that is called from index.php (or whatever) to actually do the business of outputing the html. So in twenty ten, for example, you have a loop.php file that does all that.
When you’ve found the file that’s outputing the html, you need to look for the calls the_excerpt() and/or the_content(). These are the calls that output the content (or a part of the content in the case of the_excerpt()). Your config settings in the Dashboard determine whether the whole content or an excerpt is output.
If you don’t want any content output, just delete the calls: but you should do so in a child theme if at all possible. Altering the theme itself is not a good idea when creating a child theme is bulletproof and really simple to do.
HTH
PAE
