Fathers

1 Corinthians 5

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It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father’s wife. You are arrogant, and didn’t mourn instead, that he who had done this deed might be removed from among you. For I most certainly, as being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has done this thing. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump? Purge out the old yeast, that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place. Therefore let’s keep the feast, not with old yeast, neither with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in my letter to have no company with sexual sinners; yet not at all meaning with the sexual sinners of this world, or with the covetous and extortionists, or with idolaters; for then you would have to leave the world. But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortionist. Don’t even eat with such a person. For what do I have to do with also judging those who are outside? Don’t you judge those who are within? But those who are outside, God judges. “Put away the wicked man from among yourselves.”

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What the Fathers say

1 Corinthians 5:7

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

"Purge out the old leaven," that is, this evil one. Not that he speaketh concerning this one only; rather he glances at others with him. For, "the old leaven" is not fornication only, but also sin of every kind. And he said not, "purge," but "purge out;" "cleanse with accuracy so that there be not so much as a remnant nor a shadow of that sort." In saying then, "purge out," he signifies that there was still iniquity among them. …

Homily on 1 Corinthians 15 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

Purge out therefore this fornicator, or rather, drive out all other wicked persons as well (for by "old leaven" he means every kind of evil). In the Greek text it does not simply say "cleanse" (καθάρατε), but "purge out" (ἐκκαθάρατε), that is, cleanse completely, that you may be a new lump, having no admixture of evil. "Since you are unleavened," instead of: as you ought to be unleavened, that is, free from the old evil, which upon repentance proves to be both sour and bitter.

Commentary on 1 Corinthians ↗

Ignatius of Antioch

Let us not, therefore, be insensible to His kindness. For were He to reward us according to our works, we should cease to be. For "if Thou, Lord, shalt mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" Let us therefore prove ourselves worthy of that name which we have received. …

Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians ↗

Western Saints

Gregory the Dialogist

Let its name be inquired into more carefully. Let the excellent preacher be consulted. Let us see what he declares concerning the estimation of Him. For he says: "For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed." If therefore Christ is the Passover, we must consider what the law says about the Passover, so that we may investigate more carefully whether these things seem to have been said about Christ.

Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 22 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

Then when he says, Cleanse out the old leaven, he shows what should be done in the future: first he presents the teaching; secondly, he assigns reason (v.7). He says, therefore: Because a little leaven corrupts the whole lump, cleanse out the old leaven, i.e., cleanse yourselves by casting out from your midst the old leaven, i.e., the fornicator who returned to the old state of former corruption by sinning: "You are growing old in a foreign country, you are defiled with the dead" (Bar 3:10). …

Commentary on 1 Corinthians ↗

Hippolytus of Rome

And for this reason three seasons of the year prefigured the Saviour Himself, so that He should fulfil the mysteries prophesied of Him. In the Passover season, so as to exhibit Himself as one destined to be sacrificed like a sheep, and to prove Himself the true Paschal-lamb, even as the apostle says, "Even Christ," who is God, "our passover was sacrificed for us." And at Pentecost so as to presignify the kingdom of heaven as He Himself first ascended to heaven and brought man as a gift to God.

Fragments - Dogmatical and Historical ↗