“Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?”
Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? — the shift to Passover imagery: yeast (zymē) corrupts dough (phyrama). The Corinthians 'boast' (kauchasthai) in their tolerance or wisdom; Paul warns this pride is misplaced. One person's unchecked sin (like yeast) permeates the whole community. Discipline is not about the individual alone but the church's sanctity.
Church Fathers on 1 Corinthians 5:6
“Your glorying is not good:” signifying that it was they up to the present time who had hindered him from repenting, by taking pride in him. Next he shows that he is taking this step in order to spare not that person only, but also those to whom he writes. To which effect he adds, “Do you not know, that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” “For,” says he, “though the offense be his, yet if neglected it has power to waste the rest of the body of the Church also. For when…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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