ACC ~ Galatians 5 v9

KEEP THE BREAD UNLEAVENED. MARIUS VICTORINUS: All leaven corrupts the bread, and the corrupted bread is flour. When the mass of flour is left, it sours, and then comes the leavening. Now when a small amount of the leaven is put into the mass, the mass is corrupted. “You,” he says, “must be unleavened bread. Therefore that little addition of yours, which you thought a small amount, namely, your observing of circumcision and the rest, because it is corrupt, corrupts the mass of o ur gospel. If so, you do not have full hope in Christ, and neither does Christ regard you as his own or people whose hope depends on him. For it is faith that sets free, and, as I have said, he has no faith who hopes for any sort of help apart from Christ, even along with Christ.” EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.5.9.

THIS PERSUASION COULD LEAD TO RAMPANT JUDAIZING. CHRYSOSTOM: Some may say, “Why do you blow up the matter so portentously by your words? We have kept a single command of the law, and are you clamoring because of that?” But Paul is concerned not only for their present but for their future. … “For,” he says, “this little evil, if uncorrected, has the strength to lead you into complete Judaizing, just as leaven acts on the lump.” HOMILY ON GALATIANS 5.9.

Gal