The Leaven of Sin and the Law

He says 'gift'—having been gathered together with the power of Christ. Those who were puffed up because of the one who committed fornication were part of the whole, but he calls all to be gathered together for the condemnation of the fornication. They said it was the spirit, not the soul, but the gift.

He does not allow one to be moved by glory without reason, and he brings forward the cause of the wrath, because not only fornication, but such things are heard among you as are not even among the Gentiles. And think greatly that you have been adorned with the wisdom of the world. It is necessary to mourn over him because he has not even dared to make fornication common to others. For this mourning either separated the fornicator, who remained in fornication, or it separated the impropriety itself and brought the man back, so that the spirit might be saved.

He did not say 'not having worked' but 'having worked it out,' even so that by this it might appear that, having used much endurance, he worked out the evil, and was not snatched away by sin, so that he might have a defense. Indeed, the apostle alone was sufficient to condemn him, but he wants the Corinthians to be in agreement with him, so that he might thus build up, being separated from the fellowship of the lawless, especially those nurtured in instruction.

He does not do this as one subjecting him to the authority of Satan—for if he were inflating this by doing so, he would be puffing up Satan—but because we have become accustomed to assigning all the difficult things of life to Satan, such as diseases, sorrows, griefs, and other trials, just as the apostle himself says: 'A thorn of Satan was given to me, so that he might lash me.' In this very way, he now commands him to hand him over to Satan, which is to say, to the difficulties of life.

He delivers him to the harms of life; for this is for the destruction of the flesh, not for the destruction of the soul, so that, being awakened by the things happening to the body, he might repent and the spirit within him, which is the gift, might be saved. For he does not speak here of the soul as being of the flesh, but...

Standing, with the soul alone being saved. Regarding 1 Corinthians 5:6, you see that they were boasting over him, not paying attention to the impropriety of the fall, but being puffed up by his conceit. For they were boasting over him, not paying attention to his fall but being puffed up by his upbringing. He commands him to be expelled, so that the others, joining with him in sinning, might not be incited shamelessly.

In 1 Corinthians 5:7, he calls sin an old leaven, with which the old man was leavened together. He moves the type to the truth; for the unleavened things among the Jews, not having been leavened with old leaven, represent the new men, not having been leavened with the sins of the old man. The lamb being sacrificed among the Jews revealed the passion and the cross as a mystery of the economy. And he says the following: since the leaven is more complex, but the unleavened is simpler.

In 1 Corinthians 5:8, he admonished in this way, as if he were saying: not in an evil and bad life, but in a life not having mixture with that old leaven; for this is in unleavened bread, sincerity and truth. Regarding 1 Corinthians 5:9–10, he wrote not in another letter, but in this one. Because of this, he does not forbid those outside from eating, since if he were turning away all such people, the preaching would be hindered; for all such people, as it is said, are among the Gentiles whom it happened to benefit from the fellowship of those having believed. He therefore shows to strike those at home who sin, and to exhort those who have been rebuked.

In 1 Corinthians 5:9, 13, 'What I wrote is not of another letter but of this,' for he says: 'But now I have written to you.' And 'to purge the evil one from among yourselves' is a voice of Moses, which Paul repeats. He remembers a saying in the old text, showing that not only are they benefited as if being freed from some plague, but such a thing is not a novelty; rather, it also seemed good to the Lawgiver to cut off such people. In 1 Corinthians 5:12, certainly he said this; for those...