5:6-7 What do we understand from what Paul says here?
5:6-7 What do we understand from what Paul says here?
To better understand what Paul says here we need to know first what leaven is. Leaven, or yeast, is a fermenting agent used in baking to make the dough rise. It requires time to fulfil the process, but once introduced to the dough, it permeates the whole mass, and the process is irreversible.
Because of its pervasive nature leaven signifies a corrupting influence in the church, and throughout the New Testament it is used to symbolise evil (CP Mt 16:6-12; Mk 8:15; Lu 12:1-3; Ga 5:6-9 (see also comments on Mt 13:33)).
Paul is teaching in 1Cor 5:6-7 that even as a little leaven permeates the whole mass to which it is introduced, so too one believer's sin can corrupt the whole assembly of believers who tolerate it. The believer who sins must be put out of the church (CP 1Cor 5:1-5, 13).
Paul's teaching here is for our admonition also. If there is any known sin in our own fellowship it must be exposed and the perpetrator excommunicated from the fellowship. If it is known and not exposed and dealt with, then every single member of the fellowship is a partaker of the sin (CP V7). It must be dealt with promptly or it will destroy the whole fellowship (CP De 13:12-17; Josh 6:18; 7:1, 12-13 with Eph 5:11-12; 2Th 3:6, 14-15; 1Ti 5:20).
But, as scriptures also teach, we must welcome the perpetrators back into fellowship when they have repented (CP Lu 15:11-24; 2Cor 2:3-11). See also comments on Mt 13:33; 1Cor 5:9-13 and Eph 5:5-13 and author's study Christian - Beware of Failing God's Grace and Forfeiting your Salvation in his book Advanced Studies in the Christian Faith (Volume 2).