1 Corinthians 5:6-8 (ESV)
[6] Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that
a little leaven leavens the whole lump? [7] 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. [8] 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.
The Corinthian church had been allowing, and possibly even celebrating, serious immorality in their midst. 1 Corinthians 5 lays out four appropriate responses to sin. The first response to serious sin in the life of a believer should be a broken heart on the part of the church. The second response should be to exercise accountability. Third, the church needs to recommit to purity, sincerity, and truth.
Often we hear the concept “that a little leaven leavens the whole lump” (1 Cor 5:6) in the context of association with the World. But that is not at all what Paul had in mind. In verse 10 he specifically wrote that he was not talking about “the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters.” His reasoning, “Since then you would need to go out of the world” (1 Cor 5:10). What he means is that allowing sin to continue inside church, the Body of Christ, will adversely affect the entire Body.
A friend recently wrote a paper on the heresy of love. By that he did not mean that love is wrong, but that our understanding of love is wrong. Love without accountability is wrong. Love without the context of God’s holiness is wrong. Love must be understood and practiced in the context of a just and holy God. Love does not excuse sin in our midst, let alone celebrate it. As the Body of Christ we must be committed to purity even when that means holding one another accountable; even when that means having to exercise discipline in the Body. Sin is serious business.
As the visible expression of a Holy God in a broken world, the church must be committed to purity, sincerity, and truth. “Cleanse out the old leaven (think sin and immorality) that you may be a new lump (think purity, sincerity, and truth), as you really are unleavened (that is, you are pure of any uncleanness and sin). [Because] Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Cor 5:7). The third response to sin in the Body of Christ must be a renewed commitment to purity on the part of the people of God.
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