“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
The Basket Case Chronicles #45
“Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us . . .” (1 Cor. 5:6-7).
The Corinthians were not putting up with this guy who had his father’s wife, feeling a little sheepish or guilty about it. They thought their attitude toward him was a triumph of grace, or something. They were glorying in how their attitude was handling a difficult situation for all.
Paul says, in effect, that certain sins grow. A little leaven affects the whole loaf. In this instance, the leaven is tolerated sin, of a kind which can only grow and get worse. Church discipline in such a case is not only zeal for the holiness of God, but it is also an act of self-defense. When such sins are considered tolerable, the church becomes a breeding ground for such things.
In the next breath, Paul says that Christ was our Passover, sacrificed “for us.” In the original Passover story, the Passover lamb was killed, and because of this, the angel of death would “pass over” any house with that blood on the doorposts. To tolerate sin in the church is to refuse to eat the unleavened bread, which is to not keep the Passover, which is to not have the blood on the doorposts, and which leaves you as exposed as the Egyptians were.