1 Corinthians 5:8

8 Therefore let us keep our festival not with old yeast nor with the yeast of what is evil and mischievous, but with bread free from yeast--the bread of transparent sincerity and of 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 It is no good thing--this which you make the ground of your boasting. Do you not know that a little yeast corrupts the whole of the dough?

7 Get rid of the old yeast so that you may be dough of a new kind; for in fact you *are* free from corruption. For our Passover Lamb has already been offered in sacrifice--even Christ.

8 Therefore let us keep our festival not with old yeast nor with the yeast of what is evil and mischievous, but with bread free from yeast--the bread of transparent sincerity and of truth.

9 I wrote to you in that letter that you were not to associate with fornicators;

10 not that in this world you are to keep wholly aloof from such as they, any more than from people who are avaricious and greedy of gain, or from worshippers of idols. For that would mean that you would be compelled to go out of the world altogether.