1 Corinthians 5:8

8 So then, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven or with the leaven of wickedness and sinfulness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

1 Corinthians 5:8 Meaning and Commentary

1 Corinthians 5:8

Therefore let us keep the feast
Not the feast of the passover, which was now ceased, though this is said in allusion to it; when the master of the house used to say ^F12,

``everyone that is hungry, let him come and eat; he that hath need, let him come (xopyw) , "and paschatize", or keep the feast of the passover:''

but rather the feast of the Lord's supper is here meant, that feast of fat things Isaiah prophesied of; in which are the richest entertainments, even the flesh and blood of Christ; though it seems best to understand it of the whole course of a Christian's life, spent in the exercise of spiritual joy and faith in Christ; he that is of a merry heart, as the believer of all men in the world has reason to be of, "hath a continual feast", ( Proverbs 15:15 ) of spiritual mirth and pleasure, rejoicing always in Christ, as he ought to do: which feast, or course of life, is to be kept "not with old leaven"; in the old, vain, sinful manner of conversation, as before:

neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness;
not in malice to any man, or one another, nor in any sort of wickedness, living in no known sin, and allowing of it:

but with the unleavened bread of sincerity;
as opposed to malice, of sincere love to God and Christ, and to his people: and of truth; of Gospel doctrine, discipline, and conversation.

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 Haggada Shel Pesach, p. 4. Ed. Rittangel.

1 Corinthians 5:8 In-Context

6 Your boasting [is] not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough?

7 Clean out the old leaven in order that you may be a new batch of dough, just as you are unleavened. For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed.

8 So then, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven or with the leaven of wickedness and sinfulness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

9 I wrote to you in the letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.

10 By no means [did I mean] the sexually immoral people of this world or the greedy people and swindlers or idolaters, since then you would have to depart out of the world.