These words are often quoted as supplying the reason for the rooting out of false doctrine. The application made of them is this: ‘Just as leaven, given time, permeates and changes the whole mass of dough, so also any single difficulty in any Christian fellowship will inevitably ruin the otherwise good character of the rest.’
However, what Paul is talking about in this chapter is bad behavior, not false ideas. The context is the case of incest: “sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife” (1 Corinthians 5:1).
This open flouting of all moral restraints on the part of one was aggravated by the permissive, even proud and defiant, attitude of the assembly: “And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?” (1 Corinthians 5:2).
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Author: George Booker
Keywords: Little leaven, Leaven, Yeast, Disfellowship, Excommunicate, excommunication, false doctrine
Bible reference(s): 1 Corinthians 5:6
Source: “A Little Leaven,” The Agora.
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.