1 Corinthians 5:7

Here the apostle exhorts them to purity, by purging out the old leaven. In this observe,

I. The advice itself, addressed either, 1. To the church in general; and so purging out the old leaven, that they might be a new lump, refers to the putting away from themselves that wicked person, Co1 5:13. Note, Christian churches should be pure and holy, and not bear such corrupt and scandalous members. They are to be unleavened, and should endure no such heterogeneous mixture to sour and corrupt them. Or, 2. To each particular member of the church. And so it implies that they should purge themselves from all impurity of heart and life, especially from this kind of wickedness, to which the Corinthians were addicted to a proverb. See the argument at the beginning. This old leaven was in a particular manner to be purged out, that they might become a new lump. Note, Christians should be careful to keep themselves clean, as well as purge polluted members out of their society. And they should especially avoid the sins to which they themselves were once most addicted, and the reigning vices of the places and the people where they live. They were also to purge themselves from malice and wickedness - all ill-will and mischievous subtlety. This is leaven that sours the mind to a great degree. It is not improbable that this was intended as a check to some who gloried in the scandalous behaviour of the offender, both out of pride and pique. Note, Christians should be careful to keep free from malice and mischief. Love is the very essence and life of the Christian religion. It is the fairest image of God, for God is love (Jo1 4:16), and therefore it is no wonder if it be the greatest beauty and ornament of a Christian. But malice is murder in its principles: He that hates his brother is a murderer (Jo1 3:15), he bears the image and proclaims him the offspring of him who was a murderer from the beginning, Joh 8:44. How hateful should every thing be to a Christian that looks like malice and mischief.

II. The reason with which this advice is enforced: For Christ our passover is sacrificed for us, Co1 5:7. This is the great doctrine of the gospel. The Jews, after they had killed the passover, kept the feast of unleavened bread. So must we; not for seven days only, but all our days. We should die with our Saviour to sin, be planted into the likeness of his death by mortifying sin, and into the likeness of his resurrection by rising again to newness of life, and that internal and external. We must have new hearts and new lives. Note, The whole life of a Christian must be a feast of unleavened bread. His common conversation and his religious performances must be holy. He must purge out the old leaven, and keep the feast of unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. He must be without guilt in his conduct towards God and man. And the more there is of sincerity in our own profession, the less shall we censure that of others. Note, On the whole, The sacrifice of our Redeemer is the strongest argument with a gracious heart for purity and sincerity. How sincere a regard did he show to our welfare, in dying for us! and how terrible a proof was his death of the detestable nature of sin, and God's displeasure against it! Heinous evil, that could not be expiated but with the blood of the Son of God! And shall a Christian love the murderer of his Lord? God forbid.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Co_5:7-8

Purge out therefore the old leaven.

The old leaven

I. Its nature and operation.

II. The imperative necessity of its removal. By repentance. That ye may be a new lump.

III. The means and motive--that we may enjoy Christ--our true passover--sacrificed for us. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Leaven

represented the pollutions of the idolatry and vices of Egypt with which Israel had broken in coming forth from it. As Israel had providentially carried to the desert that night only unleavened bread, the permanent rite had been borrowed from the historical circumstance (Exo_12:39; Exo_13:6-9). The apostle spiritualised the ceremony. As Israelites at every passover feast were bound to leave behind them the pollutions of their Egyptian life, in order to become a new people of God, so the Church is bound to break with all the evil dispositions of the natural heart, or that which is elsewhere called the old man. The desired result of this breaking on the part of each one with his own known sin will be a renewing of the whole Church, that ye may be a new lump. Another allusion to Jewish customs. On the eve of the feast a fresh piece of dough was kneaded with pure water, and from it were prepared the cakes of unleavened bread which were eaten during the feast. New does not signify quality, but time--recent. The whole community, by this work of purification wrought on itself, should become like a piece of dough newly kneaded. Has not the awakening of a whole Church been seen more than once to begin with submission to an old censure which weighed on the conscience of one sinner? This confession draws forth others, and the holy breath passed over the whole community. (Prof. Godet.)

Old leaven to be purged

There is a test point about you somewhere. Perhaps it is pride; you cannot bear an affront; you will not confess a fault. Perhaps it is personal vanity, ready to sacrifice everything to display. Perhaps it is a sharp tongue. Perhaps it is some sensual appetite, bent on its unclean gratification. Then you are to gather up your moral forces just here, and, till that darling sin is brought under the practical law of Christ, you are shut out from Christs kingdom. (Bp. Huntington.)

All sin to be removed

If a physician were called to see a patient who had a cancer on his breast, the only thing to be done would be to cut it out from the roots. The physician, might give palliatives, so that the patient would have less pain, or he might make his patient believe it was no cancer, or forget that he had a cancer near his vitals; but if the physician were to do this instead of removing the evil, he would be a wicked man and the enemy of his patient. The mans case was such that the only favour which could be conferred upon him would be to cut out the cancer. Now all agree that sin is the great evil of the soul of man. Nothing can make man more spiritually happy here, or fit him for happiness hereafter, but the removal of sin from his nature. Sin is the plague-spot on the soul, which destroys its peace, and threatens its destruction unless removed. It is therefore certain that if the love of God were manifested towards man, it would be in turning man from sin which produces misery, to holiness which produces happiness. (J. B. Walker.)

The leaven of malice to be purged

It is said of the serpent, that he casts up all his poison before he drinks. It were to be much desired that herein we had so much serpentine wisdom as to disgorge our malice before we pray, to cast up all the bitterness of our spirits before we come to the sacrament of reconciliation.

Purging out the old leaven

A friend once described to me this process as he saw it in a carpenters shop in Nazareth. The carpenter would not allow him to witness the search in the house lest his presence should defile the home; but he allowed him to enter the shop and witness the search there. The man went about the work with a will; he was evidently thoroughly in earnest; he girded up his loins as if he had a days work before him, and then proceeded to search with the utmost zeal. Carefully and conscientiously he turned over every board, he moved all his tools, he swept out the whole place, he opened every drawer, looked into every cupboard; there was not a crevice or a cranny in the wall that was not inspected lest there might be a tiny crumb of leaven anywhere in the shop. As he drew towards the close of his search my friend suddenly heard him utter an exclamation of horror, and looking round he saw him standing as though he had seen something most alarming. If he had found a viper or a cockatrice he could not have been more horrified than he seemed to be. What was it? In the last corner that he had visited, under some shavings, he had come across a little canvas bag, and in this little bag there were a few crumbs of leavened bread; one of the workmen had left it on some former occasion. It was enough; it defiled the whole place. With the utmost possible gravity and solemnity, and with a most anxious expression of countenance as though it were a most critical and important business, the man took hold of two pieces of wood, and using them as a pair of tongs he raised up the bag, and holding it off at arms length, marched out of the shop and dropped the leavened crumbs, bag and all, into the centre of a fire that he had burning outside ready for such a contingency, and so he purged out the old leaven. (W. Hay Aitken, M. A.)

For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast.--

Christ our passover

I. The inference.

1. That sin has the true qualities of leaven.

(1) Offensive sourness. Nothing is so distasteful to God; indeed nothing can displease Him but sin. How can it be otherwise when it is professedly opposite to Divine justice? Even the conscience, which is Gods taster, finds it abominably loathsome: how much more God! Did God find sin in His angels? He tumbles them down out of heaven. Did He find sin in our first parents? He hurls them out of paradise. Yea, did He find our sins laid on the Son of His love? He spares Him not (Isa_53:5). The more loathsome we find our sins the nearer we come to the purity of the Holy One of Israel (Psa_45:7). What shall we say, then, to those who find no savour in anything but their sins? Let us, then, bate sin (Psa_97:10) and take heed of being leavened with it.

(2) Diffusiveness. It began with one angel and infected legions. It began with one woman and infected all mankind. Let it take hold of one faculty and it will infect soul and body. Let it seize on one person in a family and it will corrupt the whole house. From thence it spreads to the neighbourhood, and taints whole cities and regions (2Ti_2:7). Since, then, our wickedness is of so spreading a nature--

(a) How careful we should be to resist its very beginnings! It is much easier to keep the floodgates shut than to drain the lower grounds when they are once overflown.

(b) How wary we should be of joining the society of the infectious, whether in opinion or manners (1Co_5:11; Tit_3:10).

(c) How much it concerns all public persons in Church or State to improve their authority to the utmost for the prevention of vice, and the expurgation of leavened persons (Psa_71:4, Hebrews).

2. This leaven must be purged out if we would have any interest in Christ our passover. In vain should any Jew talk of keeping a passover to God if he would eat the lamb with leavened bread. In vain should any Christian talk of applying Christ to his soul while his heart willingly retains any of the leaven of any known sin (Psa_26:6).

II. The proposition.

1. That Christ is a passover. The word is taken from the time of the solemnity (Act_12:4); for the sacrifices offered in the solemnity (Deu_16:4); for the act of Gods transition (Exo_12:11); for the lamb to be offered and eaten (2Ch_35:11, and here).

(1) The lamb is the passover. Which may appear far-fetched. Here was a double passing over--that of the angel over Israel, that of Israel out of Egypt: both were acts, one of God, the other of men. The explanation is that the thing signed is usually put for the sign itself (Gen_17:13; 1Co_10:4). Now what a mercy was it for God to pass over Israel when He slew the Egyptian firstborn. For this they were indebted to the blood of the paschal lamb sprinkled on their doorposts. Had they eaten the lamb and not sprinkled the blood they had not escaped. The reality of this figure is that by Christs blood sprinkled on our souls we are freed from the vengeance of the Almighty. As then Israel were never to eat of the paschal lamb, but they were recalled to the memory of their deliverance, so neither may we ever behold this sacramental representation of Christs death but we should bethink ourselves of the infinite mercy of God in saving us.

(2) That Christ is that Paschal Lamb in regard to--

(a) Choice as to, first, nature. A lamb is noted for innocence and gentleness. Christ is the Lamb of God. What perfect innocence and admirable meekness He displayed (Isa_53:7). Secondly, quality. Any lamb would not serve: it must be a lamb without blemish. Could Christ have been capable of the least sin, so far from ransoming the world, He could not have saved Himself.

(b) Preparation in respect to, first, killing. The lamb to make a true passover must be slain: so there was a necessity that Jesus should die for us (Luk_24:25-26). Secondly, sprinkling his blood. Thirdly, roasting. So did the true Paschal Lamb undergo the flames of His Fathers wrath for our sins.

(c) Eating. Note, first, it was to be eaten with bitter herbs to teach us that we may not hope to partake of Christ without sensible disrelishes of nature, without true contrition. Secondly, the whole lamb must be eaten. Many a lamb did the Jews eat in the course of the year besides; these were halved and quartered as occasion served. Whosoever would partake of Christ must take the whole Christ. There are those who will be sharing and quartering Christ; one will allow His humanity, but not His Deity; another His prophetic character, but not His priesthood, &c. In vain do these partake of Christ while they thus set upon Him by piecemeal. (Bp. Hall.)

Christ our passover

I. The antecedent.

1. What is meant by Pascha? (Exo_12:26.) Passing over is, of itself, a thing indifferent; it is good or bad according to what passes or is passed over. If any good pass over us we are the losers; if any danger the gainers. Again, if we pass from better to worse it is a detriment; if from worse to better a benefit. This is a benefit. Evil--the destroying angel--passed over Israel. They passed out of Egypt well, but the Egyptians ill.

2. What is this to us? We live in a world of which Egypt is but a corner and was a type; our Pharaoh is the devil; Gods wrath is the destroying angel; death is our Red Sea through which all must pass, some well, some ill. Our abode is as dangerous as theirs; we need a Pascha to escape Gods wrath and to pass well over death. Their passover, again, was nothing to ours. Theirs was but the deliverance of one poor nation from a passing bodily danger; ours frees all mankind from the destruction of body and soul, and that for ever. And what comparison is there between Canaan and heaven whither Christ shall make us pass?

3. Who is it? A sacrificial lamb--the figure of Christ, the Lamb of God, who became our passover when He was offered to bear the sins of the world. What is sin but a transgression or passing over the duty set before us in the Law of God? But for it no destroyer would have power over us: Christ was a passover from first to last. His birth was a passing over from the bosom of His Father to the womb of His mother: His resurrection a passing over from death to life; His ascension a passing over from the world to the Father. But in His death God took over our sins from us and laid them upon Him.

II. The consequent. Let us keep the feast. A fast rather, one would think; but by His resurrection we know that Christ is well passed over, and so we may keep our feast with joy. And a double feast it is. By His death He made the destroyer pass over us; by His resurrection He makes death passable by us. In the sacramental feast we--

1. Remember Him our Sacrifice.

2. Apply the sacrifice to our salvation. (Bp. Andrewes.)

Christ our passover

I. We are in danger of destruction. The angel of wrath has commission to destroy all the workers of iniquity. This destruction is certain, fearful, and will come in the darkness at an hour we look not for it.

II. There is no other means of escape. We cannot bar our doors or windows against this minister of wrath. We cannot propitiate or resist him, or bear up under his avenging stroke.

III. Escape is provided by the blood of Christ.

1. This is the only means.

2. The efficacious means. The angel entered no door sprinkled with the blood.

3. It must be applied. It is not enough that it has been shed.

4. The application of this blood gives not only security, but a sense of safety.

Doubtless all degrees of confidence were felt by the Israelites. Some slept without anxiety; others trembled at every sound; others pressed their firstborn to their bosoms and longed for the morning. So with sinners sprinkled with the blood. All are secure, but the measure of their confidence is very different. The want of confidence arises from the want of faith.

IV. The passover secures entrance into Canaan. Christ not only delivers from death, but gives an abundant entrance into heaven.

V. The passover was to be commemorated as long as the old economy lasted. The death of Christ is to be commemorated till He come.

VI. The passover was celebrated with everything indicative of separation from Egypt. The old leaven was purged out. So the death of Christ binds us to holiness. What would have been thought of a Hebrew who, after such a deliverance, had clung to his fetters? (C. Hodge, D. D.)

Christ our passover

I. Christ is typified here under the paschal lamb. Read Exo_12:1-51. Note--

1. The victim--the lamb. No other creature could so well have typified Him who was holy, harmless, &c., and a sacrifice for sin.

(1) It was a lamb without blemish. And was not Jesus Christ even such? Born of the pure Virgin, begotten of the Holy Ghost, His soul was pure, and His life was the same. In Him was no sin. Ye who have known the Lord, say, can ye find any fault with your Saviour?

(2) A male of the first year. Then it was in its prime. And so our Lord had just come to the ripeness of manhood when He was offered. He did not give Himself to die for us when He was a youth, for He would not then have given all He was to be, nor in old age, when He was in decay. And, moreover, at His death, He cried with a loud voice, &c., a sign that His soul was strong within Him. And does not the thought rise up--if Jesus gave His all to me, should I not give my little all to Him?

2. The place where this lamb was to be killed. The first passover was held in Egypt, the second in the wilderness; but there were no more until Israel came to Canaan. And then (Deu_16:5) God no longer allowed them to slay the lamb in their own houses, but appointed a place for its celebration, viz., Jerusalem. In Jerusalem our Lamb was sacrificed for us; it was at the precise spot where God had ordained that it should be. If that mob at Nazareth had been able to compass His death, type and prophecy could not have been fulfilled.

3. The manner of its death. It was to be slaughtered, and its blood caught in a basin. Next it was to be roasted, but it was not to have a bone of its body broken. Now nothing but crucifixion can answer all these three things. Crucifixion has in it the shedding of blood--the hands and feet were pierced. It has in it the idea of roasting, which signifies a long torment. Moreover, not a bone was broken, which could not have been the case with any other punishment.

II. How we derive benefit from Him.

1. By having His blood sprinkled on us for our redemption. Note that the blood of the paschal lamb was not sprinkled on the threshold, but on the top of the door, on the side-post, for woe unto him who trampleth under foot the blood of the Son of God! tits blood must be on our right hand to be our constant guard, and on our left to be our continual support. It is not alone the blood of Christ poured out on Calvary that saves a sinner; it is that blood sprinkled on the heart. It is not enough to say He loved the world, and gave His Son; you must say, He loved me, and gave Himself for me. There is an hour coming when God will say, Angel of death, thou knowest thy prey. Unsheath thy sword. If we have the blood on us, when we see the angel coming, we shall smile at him. Bold shall I stand in that great day, &c.

2. Christ is not only a Saviour for sinners, but He is food for them after they are saved. We must live on Christ as well as by Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Christ our passover

I. A lesson of safety.

1. Emerson says, Commit a crime and the earth is made of glass. It seems as if a coat of snow fell on the ground such as reveals in the woods the track of every partridge and fox and squirrel and mole. You cannot recall the spoken word. You cannot wipe out the foot-track. You cannot draw up the ladder so as to leave no inlet or clue. That is no news. Be sure your sin will find you out is written in the Bible of the moral nature and in the Scriptures.

2. But man wants to know something more than Emersons philosophy can teach him. This is mans passionate question--Is there nothing which can come between himself and the doom of sin? The passover was Gods answer in type; Christ is Gods answer in reality. There was one hindrance on that fatal night that the death-angel could not pass--the blood of the lamb on the door-posts. The barrier which wards off the penalties for sin is the blood of Christ.

3. Only there must be personal appropriation of the atonement. It was not simply the lamb slain in general sacrifice that brought safety. And this involved faith in what God had said, and obedience correspondent to the faith. The application is evident.

II. A lesson of strength

1. Look at those Israelites. Their staffs are in their hands; their loins are girded, &c. Before them an exhausting march, behind them a sleepless night. But God has provided that they be strengthened. The slain lamb must be eaten. The Christian life is a pilgrimage. It is under burdens; it must meet conflict. But Christ is our passover for strength; we must subsist on Him. Thus in Christ shall there be strength for us. (Hom. Monthly.)

Christ our passover

We shall--

I. Trace the allusion. Note--

1. The victim.

(1) It was a lamb--the most gentle of creatures of the type.

(2) A male of the first year--that is, in its highest state of physical perfection. And Jesus was led to the altar in the flower of His age.

(3) Without blemish (Heb_9:13-14).

(4) The paschal lamb was previously selected and set apart four days before it was slain. The service required forethought and preparation, which suggests that the Lamb of God verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, and actually entered Jerusalem four days before He suffered.

(3) The point of dissimilarity is that the lamb was unconscious of its approaching fate. But Jests saw the end from the beginning. Yet He pressed forward with unbending resolution until He could say, It is finished.

2. The appropriation of the blood.

(1) The means of protection to Israel was the blood. Without this they had been equally exposed with the Egyptians. And what is it that affords security to the sinner against the more fearful judgments of the Almighty but the blood of the heavenly Lamb which was shed upon the Cross?

(2) But the blood of the paschal victim afforded no protection till it was sprinkled with a bunch of hyssop. And here we are reminded of the necessity of a believing application of the gospel remedy.

(3) The blood sprinkled answered the end of its application because of the Divine ordination. If the sacrifice of the Cross were merely the device of man, it would possess no virtue, but because it is of Divine origin and appointment it will ever prove the wisdom of God and the power of God.

(4) The blood of the victim was not to be cast upon the threshold, to be trodden under feet as a thing of nought. And beware how you treat the gospel remedy (Heb_10:28-29).

3. The ceremony of eating it.

(1) The flesh of the lamb was designed for food. And what says Christ? (Joh_6:53-57.)

(2) The whole lamb was to be eaten. And Christ must be received in all the extent of His official character and relations.

(3) It was to be eaten with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. The benefits of Christs redemption can only be enjoyed in connection with the exercise of that godly sorrow which worketh repentance. And the old leaven of malice and wickedness must be purged out, that we may keep the gospel feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

(4) It ,was also to be eaten in haste and in a departing posture. Christians, this is not your rest. Ye are strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Stand, therefore, having your loins girded about with truth, &c.

II. Examine the fact. Christ our passover is sacrificed for us--is slain not merely for our good--that we might have the benefit of His example and the confidence arising from His testimony--but in our room and place.

1. This principle characterised the paschal sacrifice. The lamb was virtually and in effect, if not strictly, a substitutionary victim. There was life for life. Herein is typified the death of Christ, by which a way has been opened for our escape from the doom to which we are exposed and our enjoyment of everlasting life. Hence the death of Christ is uniformly represented as the meritorious cause of our redemption. All the blessings of the gospel are ascribed to this as the means of their procurement--the reason of their bestowment--and the consecrated medium through which they flow. Pardon (Eph_1:7). Justification (Rom_5:9). Purity (Heb_9:13-14). Access to God (Heb_9:19). Victory over Satan (Rev_12:10-11). Peace and joy (Rom_5:1-2; Rom_5:11). Final introduction into the presence of God in heaven (Rev_7:14-15).

2. The fact, then, is one of no common character or trifling consequence. For if Christ was not sacrificed for us, I am left without a refuge, with no ground of confidence or of hope when anticipating the transactions of the last great day. But I cannot thus surrender my hope. (Essex Congregational Remembrancer.)

The Christian passover

I. The sacrifice of Christ is--

1. Deprecatory, or designed to ward off threatened judgment. Of this nature was the paschal sacrifice, by which the Israelites were protected from the destroying angel.

2. Expiatory, in which the innocent died for the guilty, and thus offered satisfaction for the sins of the world. On this ground God can justify the ungodly without relaxing the strictness of His law, infringing the truth of His word, or degrading the dignity of His throne.

3. Precatory. Such sacrifices were offered to secure the restoration of forfeited benefits, Hence the sacrifice of Christ is a redemption which not only delivers from merited punishment, but recovers every forfeited good.

4. Vicarious. Christ endured death not merely for our instruction, or that He might seal the truth of His doctrine with blood, and set us an example of the spirit with which we should suffer. No! If He suffered, it was for our sins, the just for the unjust.

5. Eucharistic. In sacrifices of this class the victim was eaten with thanksgivings. Of this kind was the passover; and Christ is the true paschal lamb, who has not only sacrificed His life, but now offers Himself in every promise and ordinance, to be received by penitent faith, as the living bread. This is particularly represented in His last supper.

II. The sacrifice of Christ a passover. Observe the correspondence between the type and antitype more particularly in--

1. The sprinkling of the blood. As the Israelites sprinkled the blood outside the door, it ought to appear that we are inwardly pure by our being outwardly holy.

2. The eating of the lamb, by which the bodies of the people were nourished and supported. The teachings of Christs Spirit satisfy the desire for spiritual knowledge; the joys and consolations of His love satiate the hungry desires after happiness; and the fulness of His spotless mind breathed into our souls meets the vast capacity of our nature; we are strengthened with all the might of God, and grow up into Him in all things.

3. The consequent deliverance.

III. The manner in which we must celebrate the Christian passover. Let there be--

1. Purity. Purge out the old leaven. Every one who would receive Christ as his Saviour, and receive worthily His supper, should put away the old leaven. The leaven of the Sadducees was error, that of the Pharisees was hypocrisy; these must be purged out; so must the old leaven of every besetment and sin.

2. Compunction, typified by the bitter herbs with which the paschal lamb was to be eaten, and which fitly describe the sorrow of a broken spirit. Without eating these bitter herbs we shall never feel the appetite of strong desire which hungers after Christ, nor taste the sweetness of His salvation.

3. Sincerity. We must embrace Christ, not merely that we may escape from future condemnation, but with sincere desire to enjoy Him savingly, to know Him experimentally, to love Him supremely, to submit to Him cheerfully, and devote ourselves to Him entirely.

4. Unreservedness, i.e., Christ must be taken wholly. Every family, under the law, was required to sacrifice a lamb, and that family must use or burn it; not even a bone was to be broken. So every soul needs a full Christ for himself--all His power to save; all His merit to cleanse; all His wisdom to guide; all His grace to invigorate; and all His sacred presence to fill the soul and constitute its heaven.

5. Promptitude. The Israelites partook of the passover in haste, their shoes on their feet, and their staves in their hands. Now, as everything depends on the present moment, receive Christ in haste. Just now, What thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.

6. Joy. The Jews kept their passover as a season of great joy, because instituted in memory of their greatest deliverance. So should the Christian commemorate the death of his Lord as the greatest deliverance earth ever saw or heaven ever witnessed. (W. Atherton.)

Christ our passover

I propose to present some of the shapes in which this destroying angel appears, and, by Christ our Redeemer, is dismissed. But, first, I must meet one or two objections. Some may think this passing over, by the destroying angel, of a part of the world--that part, namely, visited by the light and salvation of the gospel--seems partial and unequal. To this I can only answer, God proceeds in His revelation as He does in all His providence. We feel Gods goodness; and for His equity our inmost conviction and highest intuition stands voucher. We might ask why God has made one of His creatures an angel, and another a worm; why He has caused one to dwell under the tropic line, and another at the frozen pole; why He has ordained one to be born of a poor, and another of a prosperous parentage; why, for thousands of years, He delayed discoveries so important to darkened and suffering humanity, such as the press, the compass, the bright sky-marks of a trackless voyage, or the ether-breath under which the piercing knife is painless. Enough that, at length, we have these passovers of the Divine mercy. Enough, above all, that we have in Christ the chief passover of the keenest agonies of the human heart. But this doctrine of the passover, marvelled at by the sceptical, is resented by the proud, fancying they are unwilling to receive such gratuity. They would emancipate themselves from the miseries that assail human life; they would slay the monsters of danger for themselves; nor superfluously accept a heaven they have not earned. Ah! poor pride, empty claim of independence, infatuated denial of that grace of God which is the source of all we have or enjoy! Truly, we should have begun sooner to sign off and separate, if we meant to complain of the free grace and unmerited favour of God. It is too late. We are baptized in goodness and immersed in love from our infancy. For all things, temporal or spiritual, we are beggars, dependent on God. But it is important to observe that this passover is no Contradiction or exemption of true morality. It is no passover for our exertions of virtuous fidelity. It only modifies the character of our virtue to exalt and refine it. For that show of wisdom in will-worship, which the apostle rebukes, it substitutes the at once gentler and holier virtue of that devotion to God, to right and duty, which Christ the passover inspires. Indeed there is nothing immoral or dangerous to character in the doctrine of the text. The passover, at Christs bidding, of the destroying angel, is for no license, but for our sanctity. For the contemplation of that sacrifice, producing this passover, stirs affections in the breast from which flow sweeter virtues and more winning charms of spontaneous worth than all the self-confidence of sages and all the austerities of the stoic. Christ our passover, by His Spirit, stimulates us to leave the bondage of our oppressive sins. Thus, seeing the idea of Christ the passover, not as a mere figure of rhetoric, but, beyond all objections, resting on a foundation of eternal truth, we may consider its practical applications: for we, as much as captive Jew or old Gentile, need the Divine passover. The destroying angel comes in many ways to close in a struggle with our safety and peace.

1. As we meditate in solitude or muse by the wayside he often springs upon us. Sometimes, a gigantic spectre of doubt, he fearfully overhangs our thoughts and duskily obscures our path. He darkly queries with us whether all these spiritual things which we, in our words of fine discourse, make such account of, are not mere imagination and surmise. The shining mansions above fade away into mist and vacuity; and temples and closets, songs and supplications, turn to a vain pretence or a hypocritical mockery. But Christ the passover comes through His Spirit to make the heavenly glory shine again on the world, and gleam through our thoughts by His truth.

2. Again, in the gloomy and menacing shape of remorse, comes the destroying angel. He arrays before us all our wrong-doings and omissions of duty. He throws in our face all the shortcomings of the past, He stings our memory into the recollection of unworthiness we had forgotten. He lifts his ghostly, resistless hand, to cast us down into hopeless dejection over the remaining sin that clings to our nature, and into utter despair of the mercy of God. But Christ appears with His look of kindness; He speaks the pardoning love of God, and the destroying angels condemnation is silenced.

3. In the shape of a mourner, too, as well as a doubter and accuser, comes the destroying angel. He sits by the fireside, at the table, and the grave, when dear objects have gone, and raises a miserable cry that all comfort and joy and reciprocity of affection are gone and lost with them. But Christ comes, and the destroying angel passes over. The Cross of Christ rises in sight. The sepulchre of Christ discloses its broken door. Now grief may do its worst. We are superior to it. It can lay waste the earth, and commit havoc in the abodes of men; but all its desolations are more than repaired. Christ is our passover, for He presents God as our Father. Now no father wishes his children to die; least of all the real Father, the Father of spirits, who hath power to give His children life. Therefore death, the huge but hollow semblance, must pass over. Christ hath taught us that we can love God, and how to love Him. But love is a bond of endurance according to all the ability of both its subject and object; with God it is a bond of immortality. Therefore death, with his mere masque and presumption of tyranny, must pass over. Matter ceases to be all. Knowledge, love, will, becomes all. The vast creation becomes but the theatre, wherein the intelligences which the Great Parent for ever inspires act out their thoughts and affections. (C. A. Bartol.)

The Christian passover

Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. The human mind is never more elevated with joy than in the case of those who have just escaped some great danger. Almost all our strong feelings and perceptions are due to strong contrasts; light is never so bright as when it arises out of darkness; health never so sweet as when it follows upon sickness; and safety never so precious as when realised in the presence of danger. Conceive the children of Israel on the night when the first passover was kept, standing with their staves in their hands and their shoes upon their feet, eating their last meal in the house of bondage. Who was there that did not feel, as on no previous occasion, the blessed security of being in covenant with God? Would not the consciousness of the awful danger that was abroad deepen and solemnise that sense of security? We say, Let us keep the feast. We understand this to be something more than an exhortation. It was a command to the Israelites of the most positive kind. God intended to distinguish them by an act of special mercy from the Egyptians; but this distinction was all made to hinge upon their compliance with the directions about the paschal lamb. If it be possible to conceive an Israelite so infatuated as to neglect those directions, we need not tell you what the consequences would have been. How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation? Oh! beware, I earnestly beseech you, beware of trifling in a case like this! Recollect, it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life; it is the life of your souls. Shall we put this matter to the proof? We have described the feelings of the Jewish family while keeping the passover: there were mingled feelings--fear of the danger which they knew to be so near, gratitude to God who had spread the shield of His protection over them, and reverence for that mysterious blood which God had appointed as the distinguishing mark between those whom He would protect and those whom He would destroy. Now on this great day of the feast does your state of mind resemble theirs? Have you a sense of the nearness of appalling danger? No one can estimate the greatness of the deliverance wrought who has not felt, personally and deeply, the greatness and the nearness of the danger incurred. What was it that made the feast of the passover, at its first celebration, so intensely interesting to the Israelites? what, but the knowledge that the angel of death was at their very doors? They never kept the passover so heartily afterwards; they never afterwards had such a sense of deliverance from actual and imminent danger. (J. E. Hankinson, M. A.)

Our passover

I. Our passover sacrifice. The death of the paschal lamb saved at least one life in the household, and was the security of them all. Because it died, the firstborn did not die. The blood sheltered and preserved; and the angel passed over the household whose posts were tinctured with the ruby pledge of safety. And so, distinctly and clearly in the apostles mind here, the one conception of Christs death which answers to this metaphor is that which sees in Christs death a death of expiation; though not so distinctly as in other instances, a death of substitution. Because He dies, the destruction and punishment does not fall on the man who is housed behind the shelter of His blood.

II. Our passover feast. The slaying of the lamb provided in the old ritual the material for the feast; and, says Paul, in effect, so it is with us. The Christ who has died as a sacrament is the nourishment and food of our souls. We live on the sacrifice; let us keep the feast. What Paul is thinking about here is the whole Christian life which he compares to that passover feast. And his exhortation, Let us keep the feast, is, in fact, first of all, this--Do you Christian men and women see to it that your whole life be a participation in the sacrifice of the slain Lamb. Except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, ye have no life in you. And how are we to feed upon a slain Christ? By faith, by meditation, by continual carrying in grateful hearts, in vivid memories, and in obedient wills, the great sacrifice on which our hopes build. Let your minds feed upon His truth, and your love feed upon His love; let your wills feed upon His commandment; let your consciences feed upon His great cleansing sacrifice; let your whole hopes fasten on His faithful promise; and bring your spirits in all their parts into contact with His Spirit, and the life will pass from Him to you. As our Christian life should be all a feast of continual participation in Christ, so it should be all a memorial of Him. The passover was the perpetual calling to mind year by year of that great deliverance. What tenacity of national memory is shown in that continual observance of it till this very day! So should we ever carry in our remembrance the dying of the Lord Jesus, and whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, do all in memory of Him, moulding all our lives by the pattern and for the sake of His dying love.

III. Our Christian purifying. Purge out the old leaven. Think of the scrupulous Jewish householder the night before the passover, with his lighted candle, searching through every corner of his house, where there was any chance of a bit of leavened matter being concealed. That is the sort of thing we have to do. Better cultivate a conscience that is over-scrupulous than one that is over-indulgent. And, mind, it is you that have to do it. God will do it if you ask Him; God will help you to do it if you will let Him; but God cannot do it without you, and you cannot do it without God. Therefore, two things, a large part of our cleansing must be our submitting ourselves to His cleansing and cultivating the faith which unites us to the cleansing power. Second, a part of our cleansing must be in reliance upon His Divine help, ourselves taking the brush into our hands, and ourselves scrubbing vigorously till we get rid of the pollution. And, beyond that, remember further, that this self-purifying is an absolutely indispensable condition of your keeping the feast. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God is but the same teaching as that of my text: Purge out the old leaven, that ye may keep the feast. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Christ our passover

Observe--

1. Gods greatest mercies to His Church are attended with the greatest plagues upon their enemies. The passover was the salvation of Israel and ruin of Egypt.

2. God provides for the security of His people, before He lays His wrathful hand upon their adversaries.

I. Christ is our passover. Christ is only designated in the New Testament as a Lamb, as being significant of the innocence of His person, the meekness of His nature, His sufficiency for His people.

1. The design of the passover was to set forth Christ. All the sacrifices which were appointed by God as parts of worship, were designed to keep up the acknowledgment of the fail of man, and to support his faith in the promised Redeemer. Christ is the real accomplishment of all; He is our mystical, spiritual, heavenly, perfect Passover. And, indeed, if we consider all the circumstances in the institution, they seem not worthy of the wisdom of God if they be not referred to some other mystery: and what can that be but the Redeemer of the world represented thereby? Why should so much care be in the choice and separation of a lamb? How can we think God should appoint so many ceremonies in it, lay such a charge for the strict observation of them, if He designed it not as a prop to their faith, a ground to expect a higher and spiritual deliverance by the blood of the Messiah, as well as a trial of their obedience, a memorial of their temporal deliverance, and a sign for the direction of the angel in the execution of his commission?

2. The believers in that time regarded it as a type of the Messiah (Heb_11:28).

3. The paschal lamb was the fittest to represent Christ. It was a sacrifice and a feast--a sacrifice in the killing it and sprinkling the blood, a feast in their feeding upon it. It represents Christ as a victim satisfying God, as a feast refreshing us; He was offered to God for the expiation of our sins, He is offered to us for application to our souls. The truth of this proposition will appear--

(1) In the resemblance between the paschal lamb and the Redeemer.

(a) A lamb is a meek creature. It hurts none; it hangs not back when it is led to the slaughter--no greater emblem of patience to be found among irrational creatures. How strange was our Saviours humility in entering into such a life! How much more stupendous in submitting to such a death, as shameful as His life was miserable! From this paschal lamb typifying the Redeemer the Jews might have learned, not to expect a Messiah wading through the world in blood and slaughter, and flourishing with temporal victories and prosperity, but one meek, humble, and lowly, suiting the temper of the lamb which represented Him in the passover.

(b) It was to be a lamb without blemish (Exo_12:5). It was to be entire in all its parts, sound, without bruise, scab, or maim; and the reason why it was separated four days before the killing of it was that they might have time to understand whether it had any spot or defect in it. So is the Lamb of God; He was holy in the production of His nature as well as in the actions of His life. From the first moment of His conception He was filled with all supernatural grace according to the capacity of His humanity; His union with the Divine nature secured Him against the sinful infirmities of our nature, and made all supernatural perfections due to Him, whereby He might be fitted for all holy operations. As He was that holy thing in His birth (Luk_1:35), so He was righteous to the last moment of His life. The law of God was within His heart, signified by the tables of the law laid up in the ark.

(c) The lamb was to be chosen, and set apart three days, and killed the fourth in the evening (Exo_12:6). Our Saviour was separate from men, manifested Himself in the work of His prophetical office three years and upwards, before He was offered up as a sacrifice in the fourth year, after He had been solemnly inaugurated in the exercise of His office. It was ordered by God to he killed in the evening, to signify the sacrifice of the Messiah in the evening of the world. He was crucified at the end of the second age of the world, the age of the law, and the beginning of the third age, that of the gospel, which is called in Scripture the last times (Heb_1:2).

(d) The lamb was roasted with fire whole (Exo_12:4; Exo_12:8-9), not sodden. To put them in mind of the hardship they endured in the brick-kilns of Egypt, and as a type of the scorching sufferings of the Redeemer. Probably alluding to this roasting of the paschal lamb. He bore the wrath of that God who is a consuming fire, without any water, any mitigation or comfort in His torments. It may note also the gradual rising of the suffering of Christ. As His exaltation was not all at one time, but by degrees, so were His sufferings, by outward wounds, cutting reproaches, and inward agonies.

(e) Not a bone of the paschal lamb was to be broken (Exo_12:46). This was fulfilled in our Saviour (Joh_19:36). Death had not a full power over Him, He was not broken to pieces by the greatness of His sufferings.

(2) There is a resemblance in the effects or consequents of the passover.

(a) The diverting the destroying angel by the sprinkling of the blood upon the posts, to be a mark to the angel to spare the firstborn of such houses, was the main end in the institution (Exo_12:12-13). It is only under the warrant of this blood that we can be safe. The Redeemers blood shed for us, and sprinkled on us, preserves our souls to eternal life. As the destroying sword did not touch the Israelites, so condemning wrath shall not strike those that are under the protection of it: death shall have no power over them.

(b) Upon this succeeded that liberty God had designed for them (Exo_12:31). As it secured them from death, so it was the earnest of their deliverance, and broke the chains of their slavery. The death of Christ is the foundation of the full deliverance of His people, and the earnest of the fruition of the purchased and promised inheritance. This was the conquest of Pharaoh, upon which soon after followed his destruction. The Israelites slavery ended when their sacrifices were finished; the efficacy of this Divine passover delivers men from a spiritual captivity.

(c) After this passover they do not enjoy their liberty, but begin their march to Canaan, the promised and delightful land. So by the merit of the sacrifice of Christ the true Israelite turns his face from earth to heaven, from a world that lies in wickedness to an inheritance of the saints in light, and travels towards Canaan. Is Christ called our passover? Then--

1. The study of the Old Testament is advantageous. The Old Testament delivers the types, the New interprets them: the Old presents them like money in a bag, the New spreads them and discovers the value of the coin; the Israelites in the Old felt the weight of the ceremonies, believers in the New enjoy the riches of them.

2. Upon what a slender thread doth the doctrine of transubstantiation hang! Christ is here called the passover--was the paschal lamb therefore substantially the body of Christ?

3. The ancient Jews were under a covenant of grace. Christ was the end, the spirit, the life of their sacrifices. The passover, rock, sacrifices, manna, were the swaddling-bands wherein He was wrapped. They had the sun under a cloud, we the Sun at noon-day in His glory.

4. In the security Christ procures. The destroying angel was not to enter into any sprinkled house, no passage was afforded to him. The wrath of God, or the malice of the devil can have no power over them that are sprinkled with the blood of Christ. In the efficacy. The blood of the lamb was but a sign of that deliverance of the Israelites, but could not purge their defiled consciences; but the blood of our Lamb hath merited our salvation, can cleanse our consciences from dead and condemning works to serve the living God. This comfort is the greater by how much the tyrant we are delivered from is more dreadful that Pharaoh, whose design is not only like his to afflict our bodies but tumble our souls and bodies into the same hell with himself. It is from the wrath of God our passover hath delivered us; and what is the anger of Pharaoh to the fury of an offended Deity? It is true deliverance is yet but begun; it is not yet perfect; miseries and spiritual contests arc to be expected.

Pharaoh will pursue, but shall not overtake; death shall not swallow up those who are sprinkled with this holy blood.

1. Thankfully remember this passover.

2. Inquire whether He be our passover. He is a passover, but is He a lamb eaten by us, owned by us? He is ours by the gift of God, but is He ours by the acceptation of our souls? This Lamb is ours in the liberty, life, glory, and rest He hath purchased, when we are like Him, when we learn of Him.

3. Have faith in the blood of Christ. The killing the lamb signified the death of Christ, the sprinkling the blood signified the application of it by faith. It was not the blood contained in the veins of the lamb or shed upon the ground, that was the mark of deliverance, but sprinkled upon the posts: nor is it the blood of Christ circulating in His body or shed upon the Cross, which solely delivers us, but as applied by faith to the heart. That was sprinkled upon every house that desired safety, and this upon every soul that desires happiness. Had an Israelites family neglected this it had felt the edge of the angels sword; the lamb had not availed him, not by a defect of the sacrifice, but by their own negligence or contempt of the condition. Or had they used any other mark, they had not diverted the stroke: no work, no blood but the blood and sufferings of the Redeemer, can take away the sin of the world.

4. Let us leave the service of sin. The Israelites after this passover did no more work at the brick-kilns of Egypt. They ceased to be Pharaohs slaves, and began to be the Lords freemen.

II. Christ is a sacrifice. I shall lay down some propositions for the illustrating of this doctrine.

1. Sacrifices were instituted as types of Christ.

(1) They were instituted by God.

(2) No other reason can be rendered of the institution of them, but as typical of the great sacrifice of the Redeemer.

(3) Christ did really answer to these types.

2. The sacrifices thus instituted were of themselves insufficient, and could not expiate sin; they must, therefore, receive their accomplishment in some other. But being shadows by their institution, they could make nothing perfect (Heb_10:1; Heb_10:11).

(1) It was not consistent with the honour of God to be contented with the blood of a beast for an expiation of sin. How could there be in it a discovery of the severity of His justice, the purity of His holiness, or the grandeurs of His grace?

(2) They have no proportion to the sin of man. The sin of a rational creature is too foul to be expiated by the blood of an irrational creature.

(3) The reiteration of them shows their insufficiency. They were rather a commemoration of sin, and confessions of it, than expiations of any--rather accusers than atoners.

(4) God had often spoke slightingly of them. He resembles them to the cutting off a dogs neck, when done with an unholy heart (Isa_66:3). He professeth He had no delight in them (Psa_40:6). And what is said of this may be said of all our duties and performances, the staves upon which men naturally lean for acceptation of their persons.

3. Such a sacrifice, therefore, is necessary for a sinful creature. No creature can be such a sacrifice. As the apostle argues, If righteousness be by the law, then was Christ dead in vain (Gal_2:21).

(1) What is a sacrifice for sin must be pure and sinless. God will not accept a defiled offering.

(2) An infinite sacrifice is necessary for a sin in some respects infinite, for every sin entrencheth upon the honour of an infinite God.

(3) Necessary in regard of the justice of God, which is an immutable and infinite perfection of the Divine essence.

4. Christ only was fit to be this sacrifice.

5. It was necessary in regard of His office of priesthood, that He should be a sacrifice.

6. Jesus Christ, then, was a sacrifice in His human nature.

7. That whereby this sacrifice was sanctified, was the Divine nature. Every sacrifice was sanctified by the altar (Mat_23:19).

8. Upon the sacrifice of Christ all His other sacerdotal acts depend, and from thence they receive their validity for us.

(1) This was the ground of His ascension and entrance into heaven as a priest. The high priest was not to enter within the veil without blood.

(2) This is the foundation of His intercession. There are two functions of Christs priesthood--oblation and intercession.

(3) This is the foundation of all the grace any have. The conveyance of all the gracious love of God is through this channel. In redemption by His blood the riches of the grace of God abounded, and that with the marks of the highest wisdom (Eph_1:7-8).

III. Christ was sacrificed for us--ὑπὲρ when joined with suffering for another, always signifies in anothers stead and place; it is so used Rom_5:7. This will be cleared if we consider--

1. That Christ could not be a sacrifice for Himself. The Messiah was to be cut off, but not for Himself (Dan_9:26). He needed no sacrifice for Himself.

2. Sacrifices implied this. They had a relation to the offerer, and were substituted in his place.

3. The whole economy of Christ is expressed in the whole Scripture to have a relation to us. All things preparatory to His sufferings were for us.

4. Our sins were imputed to Him as to a sacrifice. Christ the just is put in the place of the unjust to suffer for them (1Pe_3:18). Christ is said to bear sin as a sacrifice bears sin (Isa_53:10; Isa_53:12). His soul was made an offering for it.

(1) It cannot be understood of the infection of sin. The filth of our nature was not transmitted to Him.

(2) But that our sin was the meritorious cause of His punishment. All those phrases that Christ died for our sins (1Co_15:3), and was delivered to death for our offences (Rom_4:23), clearly import sin to be the meritorious cause of the punishment Christ endured: sin cannot be said to be the cause of punishment but by way of merit. If Christ bad not been just He had not been capable of suffering for us.

(3) Our sins were charged upon Him in regard of their guilt. Our sins are so imputed to Him as that they are not imputed to us (2Co_5:19), and not imputed to us, because He was made a curse for us (Gal_3:13).

(a) The apostle distinguishes His second coming from His first by this (Heb_9:28), He shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

(b) He cannot be well supposed to suffer for our sins, if our sins in regard of their guilt be not supposed to be charged upon Him. How could He die, if He were not a reputed sinner?

5. The sufferings of this sacrifice are imputed unto us. He took our sins upon Himself, as if He had sinned, and gave us the benefit of His sufferings, as if we had actually suffered.

The redounding of these sufferings to us, ariseth--

1. From the dignity of the person undertaking to be a sacrifice for us, and the union of our nature with his.

2. From union with this infinite Person by faith. All believers have a communion with Him in His death (2Co_5:14).

If Christ be a sacrifice--

1. We may see the miserable blindness of the Jews in expecting the Messiah as a temporal conqueror.

2. If Christ be a sacrifice, it shows the necessity of a satisfaction to the justice of God, and a higher satisfaction than men could perform.

3. Christ as sacrificed, is the true and immediate object of faith.

4. It is no true opinion that Christ died only for an example.

5. Comfort to every true believer. He was sacrificed for us. God counted Him a sinner for our sakes, that He might count us righteous for His sake.

(1) As Christ hath been sacrificed for them, so He has been accepted for them.

(2) This sacrifice unites all the attributes of God together for a believers interest.

(3) This sacrifice is of eternal virtue.

(4) The effects of this sacrifice, therefore, are perfect, glorious, and eternal.

6. We must then lay hold on this sacrifice.

7. We must be enemies to sin, since Christ was a sacrifice for it. Unless sin die in us, we cannot have an evidence that this sacrifice was slain for us. (Thomas Hacket.)

The Christian passover

It is remarkable that this is Pauls only allusion to the Jewish Passover. Paul has been commanding the Corinthian Christians to cast out from their midst a grossly profligate person. He then desires to enjoin upon them to get rid of corruption in themselves as well as in others, and corruption suggests the thought of leaven, secretly, silently, victoriously spreading through the mass. And leaven suggests--in his way of going off at a tangent--the thought of the scrupulous search of the Jewish householder for it in his house in preparation for the paschal feast; and that suggests the paschal feast itself. And so without explanation, and quite incidentally, he drops, as it were by the way, this great thought.

I. First, then, paul thought of Christs work as a sacrifice. It was a sacrifice, though of a very singular kind. The passover lamb was slain by the head of each household. It was offered upon no altar; it was prepared by no priest, but for all that it was a sacrifice, and that of an expiatory character. You may call it a gross, low, infantile conception. Be it so! It is the conception of the rite at all events. Paul lays his hand upon that sacrifice, and he says it meant Jesus Christ. So he implies two things, both of which are gravely contested by many to-day: the one that, whatsoever the date of these Jewish sacrifices, they had not only a symbolical but a prophetic aspect; and the other that the centre-point of their prophetic message in reference to Jesus Christ was His death, wherein and whereby men were free from the penal consequences of death in its sternest sense. Is there any theory about Christ and His death which warrants the application of these words our passover to Him, except one which frankly and fully recognises the sacrificial and atoning aspect of His death? Paul may have been right or he may have been wrong. That is what he believed, at any rate. But I have yet another step to take. Pauls Master took precisely the same point of view. I claim Christ as the first who taught us that He was our passover. And I point to the rite that He established as the great standing token that His conception of His work was the same as the apostles. Now I do not want to pin you down to any doctrine of an atonement, but I do want to lay upon your hearts this, which I for one believe with all my heart, that no conception of Christ, His nature, His work, His life and death, is full toned and in accordance with His own teaching which does not proclaim Christ is our passover. And I ask you, Is that the Christ that you know and the Christ that you trust?

II. If Christ is our passover our lives will be a feast. If He indeed has, as our passover, secured for us safety and liberty, then, of course, all life will take a new aspect. And if we recognise the fact that the Lamb slain is the Lamb in the midst of the throne, administering Providence and guiding the world and the Church, and ever present with each of us, if we trust Him, to bless and keep us, then a flush of gladness will be diffused over all life. Just as when the year turns, and the sunshine begins to gather power, even a grim landscape undergoes a subtle change, and is a prophet of the coming summer, so we, if Christ is our passover, will be possessed, in the fact and in the recognition of the fact, of a charm which, if it does not annihilate, at least modifies all burdens and troubles, and which will bring into any life that is true to it a deep, quiet, calm joy far more real, noble, blessed, and the ally of great thoughts and deeds, than the surface ripple of laughter and of mirth which men baptize by that great name. But, brethren, remember that the words are a commandment, and that implies that the realisation of this gladness, which is the natural fruit of the conception of Christs death of which I have been speaking, depends very largely upon ourselves. I do not think Christian people as a whole realise as much as they ought to do the sin of sorrow and the duty of rejoicing. But that is not all which is conveyed in this thought of the feast which life becomes when Christs death is recognised as our expiation. There is further involved the duty of participating in the flesh of the sacrifice. You have to feed upon the Christ who is sacrificed for you, or the sacrifice is of no avail. What Christ is it that nourishes a man? The Christ that taught great and wonderful things? Yes, in some degree. The Christ that walked before men, the sweet Example of all duty, and the sum of whatsoever things were lovely and of good report? Yes, in some degree, but I believe that the Christ who feeds the whole man, and who, being partaken of, gives immortal life to the man who feeds on Him, is the Christ who died and gave His flesh and His blood for the life of the world. Physiologists will tell you that it is possible to feed a man on foods which have so little power of supplying all the constituents necessary for the human body that he may eat them and be starved. And there is a version of the Christ which, if men live upon, they will live a very feeble life, and, as I believe, will come near starving.

III. Lastly, if we feed upon Christ our passover we shall be pure. There is no way of getting thoroughly rid of the old leaven except the one way of taking Christ for the food of our souls. If He is our bread as well as our sacrifice, then we are bound to serve Him in righteousness. What did He die to deliver us from? Sin. What did He die to make us? Pure and righteous. There is no reason for any man believing that Jesus Christ is his passover unless He is that mans purity. The obligation, the inclination, and the ability to cleanse our- selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit are inseparably wrapped up with the conception of His death as the means of our life and safety. The Jew had first to cast out the leaven, then to partake of the passover. We have a better and an easier task; first to partake of the passover and then to cast out the leaven. Do not put the cart before the horse, as some of you do, and try to make yourselves better, in order that you may have a right to a share in Christ. Begin with eating the bread, and then in the strength of that meat, rejoice all your days, and purge yourselves from all iniquity. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Christ our passover

The Rev. Dr. Bowman, of the Church Missionary Society, was enabled to erect a place of worship in connection with the Calcutta Leper Asylum, and an aged woman, over eighty-two years old, was there led by the preacher to the Divine Healer. A sceptic asked her if the many gods and goddesses of her own religion would not suffice, but she had an answer ready for him: None of them died for me.

Christs sacrifice a quickening truth

The sacrifice of innocence for guilt is the profoundest truth which God has ever exemplified in a human life. Yet not mere truth, but duty, not theology, but practice, is the end of revelation. Truth is not revealed or offered by prophets, Saviour, or apostles for truths sake, but always for upbuilding in righteousness. There is no more dangerous falsehood abroad than the assertion that truth should be sought for its own sake. Yet a vast deal of this truth-seeking and hearing is an intellectual voluptuousness, a spiritual self-gratification, a selfish indulgence of pleasurable emotions, just as deadly to the soul as bodily sensualism. It is as truly immoral to seek truth out of mere love of knowing it as it is to seek money out of love to gain. It is an idolatry--setting of the worship of abstractions and generalities in the place of the living God. Truth is valuable to the degree that it makes us true. Truth that is not utilised as the Divine energy of ones being, that is not converted into aggressive goodness, is a smiting curse. Truths not taken into the soul, as fuel for the Spirit of God to kindle into a burning enthusiasm for service, are as virtueless in character-building and spiritual empowering qualities as so many bricks. Further, it is ruinous to have our good impulses quickened by truth, as it is manifested in the sacrificial life and death of Jesus, and then allow those impulses to die without being wrought out in Divine being and doing. The knowledge that Christ sacrificed Himself on our behalf will rise up in judgment as our condemnation if we evade sacrificing ourselves for the same end for which He offered up His life.

Let us keep the feast

Contemplate the paschal feast--

I. In its relation to the Lords Supper. I do not suppose that the apostle was actually referring to this, but he was speaking of that experience, to the necessity and importance of which our sacramental feast bears witness.

1. The word suggests--

(1) The idea of a sacred season, and thus the old distinction is no longer to be drawn in our lives between things secular and things sacred: all is to be sanctified.

(2) Enjoyment. Our life is to be a season of continuous festivity. In both these senses our lives are to be festal, and this holy ordinance has been appointed to keep ever before our minds the true idea of what our lives are to be.

2. Observe that--

(1) The Jewish passover was a continuous commemoration of a deliverance wrought out for Israel. So the Holy Communion is designed to be a perpetual remembrance of that wonderful deliverance wrought out for us on the Cross of Calvary. Human gratitude is apt to be short-lived, and only too many of us get out of the sight of the Cross. This feast was instituted by one who knew our human frailty, so that should we forget how much we owe to His dying love we may straightway be brought back again full in view of His Cross, and obtain deeper and clearer apprehensions of the benefits that redemption brings within our reach.

(2) The paschal feast was furnished by the very lamb whose blood secured the safety of the household. So Jesus, the victim, is Himself the feast.

(a) If the only object of the Holy Communion had been a commemoration, it would have been enough that the bread should be broken and the wine should be poured forth; for there was nothing in the fact of our Lords crucifixion to answer to the eating and the drinking. The lesson, then, is that as our physical bodies are continuously dependent upon the material world, so the new life of the human spirit is constantly dependent upon a Divine Supply.

(b) But in order to receive real benefit something more is needed than the mere partaking of the consecrated elements. The outward act is designed to bring your faith to bear upon the thought that God is then and there through Christ communicating the Divine life to you; and as you bring your faith to bear upon that act of Gods love towards you, you will be indeed a communicant.

(c) But the question may occur, What is meant by the words, This is My body, and this is My blood? The words must be used in a spiritual sense. For if we could have partaken of Christs material body and blood at the time of the crucifixion that would have produced no spiritual change. The substance so received would have simply assimilated itself to our bodily tissues in the usual way. Similarly, if a supernatural act of transubstantiation were to transpire at that holy table the mere reception of these would leave us, so far as our spiritual condition is concerned, just where we were before.

II. As an emblem of the Christian life. It was--

1. The feast of safety. The destroying angel was passing through the land, but the Israelites feasted in safety, because they knew that they were safe under the blood-stained lintel. They did not hope or think about it; they knew they were safe, because they had Gods word for it. And if your life is to be a festal life you need a similar consciousness. Many religious people seem much more like keeping a funeral than a feast. They are always complaining of their doubts and fears. They are not quite clear as to whether they have sprinkled the blood, or, if they have done so, they do not take to themselves the full comfort which belongs to those who have; they dont rest upon the distinct declaration of eternal truth--I will pass over; He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life. We must thank ourselves for our miseries if we insist on doubting the Divine faithfulness.

2. A feast of deliverance. They were happy not only because they were safe, but because they were free. They were in the house of bondage still; but they felt the throbbings of national life, and their anticipations told them that, in spite of appearances, they were free. And it is even so with us. Rom_6:1-23. is just as true as Rom_5:1-21. The latter tells us about our justification; the former about our deliverance from the tyranny of sin. I dont say that you are to have no more temptation. The Israelites had not done with enemies when they crossed the sea. Indeed, they had hardly got out of Egypt before Amalek attacked them; and yon will not have gone very far along your spiritual journey before temptation will attack you. But it is a very different thing to be attacked by Amalek and to be kept in the slavery of Pharaoh. From the hand of Amalek they had to be delivered by the same God that had delivered them out of the power of Pharaoh. And even so now you are free in Christ you will have to guard your liberties by employing the same Divine power that set you free to defend you.

3. The feast of separation. The Egyptians were not allowed to keep it. Up to that time the Egyptians and the Israelites had lived as neighbours, but now there was a line of separation between them. If you have not sprinkled the paschal blood you have no right at the table of the Lord. Nor can you participate in that feast of life which the Christian is privileged to keep; for you belong to the world, and the world has no part in the paschal feast. And Christians cannot properly enjoy it unless they are content to be separate from the world. I meet with not a few Christians from whose life all happiness seems to have departed just for this reason. They are not willing to be separated, and so they cannot keep the feast.

4. The feast of purification. Not with the old leaven, &c. Careful search was to be made, and all that was leavened was to be excluded from their habitations. And here is a very important lesson. We may be delivered from the tyranny of sin, and yet how much of latent evil may still lurk within! But there is a Holy Spirit of burning who can and will consume the dross if we are only willing to be cleansed.

5. The feast of wayfaring men. They were to eat it in haste, with shoes on their feet, &c. And if you want to enjoy the passover you must realise that you are a wayfaring man, and shape your life accordingly. (W. Hay Aitken, M. A.)

The Christian feast

The text is justly supposed to have some reference to the institution, which has the same place under the gospel which the passover had under the law. The Lords Supper was intended--

I. As a memorial of the sufferings of Christ for His people. This we learn from the words of Jesus at its first institution, and that we are to remember Him particularly as suffering for our sins is evident from This is My body which is broken for you, &c. Show forth the Lords death till He come. It is to be looked upon, therefore, as a token of love, or memorial left by a friend at parting among his friends, that whenever they see it they may remember him. This remembrance of a suffering Saviour must be attended with--

1. Suitable affections.

2. Self-examination. Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of this bread, &c.

II. As a badge of our Christian profession. Baptism is appointed for our initiation into the Christian Church at our first assuming that profession; and by partaking of this ordinance we declare our constancy in it, and that we do not repent of our choice nor desire to change our Master.

III. As a seal of the covenant of grace, both upon Gods part and upon ours.

1. It is a standing evidence, obvious to our senses, that God is unchangeably willing to stand to the articles on His part; that He is ready to give His Son and all His blessings to such as believe, as He is to give bread and wine as signs and seals of them.

2. As to our part in receiving these elements, we signify our hearty consent to the covenant of grace, and, as it were, set our seal to it to confirm it.

IV. As a communion of saints. Our sitting down at the same table, partaking of the same elements, and commemorating the same Lord, are very expressive of this communion, and have a natural tendency to cherish it. In such a posture we look like children of one family, fed at the same table upon the same spiritual provisions. Hence this ordinance has been frequently and justly called the communion (chap. 10:16, 17).

V. As a fellowship with god (1Jn_1:3). This communion consists--

1. In that intercourse which is carried on between God and His people.

2. In the community of property.

3. In the interchange of property. (S. Davies, A. M.)

The feast of joy

What is joy? The firstborn of love and the parent of peace--love, joy, peace. And what was the far end of all our Redeemers work on earth? That your joy may be full. And how can the Church reach to its deep things of privilege unless it takes the right vessel to the cistern and draw water with joy out of the wells of salvation? Let us ask, Why ought we to be happy in the resurrection of Christ? Because--

I. Our Lord is happy. From the moment of His rising neither His body nor His mind appear to have been subject to, or even capable of, pain. When He said, It is finished! His sufferings were over. Now in proportion as our sympathy is with Him, our heart will always make the tone of our mind. Be glad, then, because your Lord is glad. Jesus is not a Man of sorrows now. He is a Man of joys.

II. Truth has been vindicated. To a well-ordered mind it is a great satisfaction to see any truth thoroughly established. The resurrection of Christ must stand or fall on revelation. In the Old Testament it is involved in the types and prophecies. Our Lords own teaching showed it, and it was the mainspring of His whole life. And the apostles are emphatic--If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, &c. So that it is the end of all Divine truth; and the evidence is most exact and clear. The Bible is verified and the truth of Christianity placed beyond doubt.

III. The father has accepted the sacrifice of His Son. Christ was justified in the Spirit, which quickened Him. And in that He was justified, His atoning work is justified, and in that His atoning work is justified I am justified, and God Himself is justified to forgive me.

IV. Honour is put on the body. Some Christians, wishing to avoid the extreme into which they once ran, now disparage the body too much. But what is this body? The broken mirror of God, to be recast presently into a counterpart of the form of Jesus as He is now in glory--the temple walls of the Holy Ghost. This reflection is full of comfort. If the next world were to be peopled only with spirits, we might be called upon in vain to believe in the communion of saints. It would be almost impossible to realise anything so abstract; but now in our flesh we shall see God.

V. A warrant is given of a glorious resurrection. Where the Head is, there must the members be. The tomb is not dark now, for Jesus left a light; not degrading, for it has been dignified by fellowship with Him; not final, for it is open the other end. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

The Eucharist

I. Its nature--a feast, because of--

1. The fellowship it affords.

2. The feelings it inspires.

3. The strength which it imparts.

II. Its requisites.

1. Love to man.

2. Sincerity and truth before God. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

The obligation of Christians to observe the Lords Supper

Let us keep this feast because--

I. Its obligation rests on the Redeemers dying command. An injunction is always rendered more binding--

1. When it comes from the lips of one we love, and who has shown a deep interest in our welfare. We naturally pay a respectful deference to the request of a neighbour or acquaintance; but what is this in comparison with the command of a parent? The observance of the Lords Supper is the solemn injunction of One who has proved Himself to be infinitely more than the best and fondest on earth.

2. When it is conveyed at some exceptionally solemn or momentous season. Surely if there be a time more sacred or impressive than another it is at the hour of death. Do this in remembrance of Me was as much Christs dying legacy as the Peace I leave with you.

II. It is a befitting public declaration of our Christian profession. Beautiful must have been the spectacle when Israel assembled to give public testimony on the slopes of Ebal and Gerizim. More solemn and interesting still when, year by year, they went to celebrate the appointed feasts. The Psalmist puts special emphasis on paying his vows in the presence of all Gods people (Psa_116:14; Psa_116:19). Let none of us be guilty of false shame in shrinking from an open declaration of the infinite debt of gratitude we owe to redeeming love. Even the soldiers of pagan Rome gloried in ascending the steps of the Capitol to the Temple of Victory, with their votive offerings, swearing by the gods allegiance to their imperial master. And shall we Christians be found cowards to Christ? Whosoever is ashamed of Me, &c.

III. By not keeping it we incur spiritual loss. We never can be careful enough in discarding the unscriptural idea that there is any peculiar grace or virtue in the Sacrament. All grace flows from Christ (Zec_4:12). But we must not undervalue the ordinance as a means of grace. It is doubtless one of the Divine channels for the conveyance of spiritual good. God works by instrumentalities; and if we neglect those of His own express appointment we cannot expect otherwise than to suffer spiritually. Conclusion: You object, We are not warranted to approach the table of Communion, because--

1. We are not prepared for it. My answer is, The same reason which makes you unfit for the Communion renders you unmeet for death. Is it not because we are sinners, and unworthy, that we are invited to come to the feast, and there to celebrate the infinite worthiness of the Lamb that was slain?

2. Some venture who have no right to be there. But your duty is independent of any such intruders. You are not responsible for the sin and presumption of others. (J. R. Macduff, D. D.)

The celebration of the Lords Supper a Christian duty

I. That Christ crucified is the true passover, of which the Jewish was a type.

1. The passover was of Divine appointment. It did not originate with Moses and Aaron, or any of the elders or people of Israel. It was not the offspring of human policy, but of God.

2. The passover was appointed for the deliverance of the Israelites from bondage and death.

3. The passover would benefit none unless the blood were applied.

4. The passover was not only to be slain, and its blood sprinkled, but it was also to be eaten.

II. That as the feast of the passover was to be celebrated by the Jews so the eucharist or Lords Supper is to be celebrated by Christians. The Jews were to celebrate it--all the Jews and proselytes (Exo_12:47-48)--but none else (verse 43); it was to be celebrated as long as their dispensation should continue (verse 24); as a memorial of their deliverance from Egypt (verse 27). So the Lords Supper is to be celebrated by all Christians. All Christians ought to celebrate it.

1. Because Christ has commanded it (Luk_22:19). Whatever He has commanded must be implicitly obeyed.

2. Because it keeps alive the important doctrine of salvation through the death of Christ.

3. Because it eminently tends to excite holy affections. Godly sorrow, arising from a conviction, that our sins, in common with those of others, occasioned the sufferings and death of Christ. Ardent love to Christ. Grateful obedience.

III. That in order to its acceptable celebration several things demand attention.

1. We should have correct views of its nature.

2. We should not ascribe an efficiency to it which it does not possess. Many substitute it in the place of regeneration.

3. We should celebrate it with suitable dispositions. Not with malice. Not with wickedness. But with sincerity and truth, with purity of intention, and with an agreement between our principles and outward profession.

Conclude by answering a few objections.

1. I dare not keep the feast, for it is a solemn ordinance. For the same reason you should neither pray, read the Scriptures, sing Gods praises, nor hear His gospel preached; for they are solemn.

2. I am not prepared to receive it.

3. I have kept the feast formerly, but since then I have relapsed into sin. (Sketches of Sermons.)

Let us keep the feast

I. It is to be kept for the great and general purpose of commemorating Christs love.

II. For the more especial purpose of holding in remembrance His death.

III. For the purpose of making a public profession of our belief in Christ, and our devotion to His service. When the Christian kneels at the table of the Redeemer, he virtually, in the view of God, of angels, and the Church, declares that he believes in the mysterious constitution of the Saviours person, and that he confides on Him, and on Him only, for deliverance from hell and elevation to bliss. He attaches himself to the standard of the Leader of the Faithful; he engages to fight against the powers of darkness, and in the interest of heaven. (W. Craig.)

Sincerity and truth.--

Sincerity

I. The nature of gospel-sincerity.

1. A single intention and aim to please God, and approve ourselves to Him through our whole course.

2. An impartial inquiry into our duty.

3. An entire and universal application to the practice of duty, as far as it is known, without stated and allowed reserves and exceptions.

4. A correspondence and harmony between inward sentiments and the words and actions.

II. Of what importance it is that this qualification should attend us in all the exercises of the Christian temper and duty.

1. It is expressly required by Divine precept in the several branches of our duty. The new man in general, which Christianity teaches us to put on, is, after God created in true holiness (Eph_4:24). The first and great commandment of godliness is thus prescribed (Mat_22:37).

2. It is indispensably necessary to our acceptance with God. How can that be expected to meet with a favourable regard from God, which was not in intention done to Him?

3. This qualification alone can minister solid satisfaction to ourselves upon reflection. One man may possibly reach his ends with another by disguise; but how low and empty a satisfaction will that produce, if he cannot be satisfied from himself? So the truly good man alone is (Pro_14:14).

4. Sincerity will be the easiest method of conduct. What art and pains are needful to wear a disguise tolerably!

5. Herein we shall copy after the most illustrious and excellent examples. Insincerity, on the other hand, is most directly the image of the devil, that false and lying spirit, who, from his craft and deceitfulness, is called the old serpent, and represented as assuming all shapes and disguises to carry on his designs.

This subject may very fitly be applied various ways.

1. As a subject of sorrow for the evident violations of sincerity among those who wear the name of Christians.

2. As a measure of judging ourselves, whether we are in a state of acceptance with God.

3. As a ground of humiliation to the best for the defects in their sincerity, as well as in every particular branch of goodness.

4. As an engagement to cultivate and advance in this excellent qualification. (J. Evans, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5:7-8 Paul draws an analogy between the traditional Jewish Passover celebration and the sacrifice of Christ. In the Passover celebration, a lamb was sacrificed and unleavened bread was eaten (see Exod 12:1-27; 13:3-7). The sacrifice of Christ, which occurred at Passover (Matt 26:2; cp. John 1:29; 1 Pet 1:19), results in the removal of sin for believers.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Co 5:7. Τὴν παλαιὰν, the old) leaven of heathenism and natural corruption.—ἵνα ἦτε νέον φύραμα, that you may be a new lump) the whole of you, evil being taken away.—καθὼς, even as) The third clause of this verse depends rather on the first, than on the second.—ἄζυμοι, unleavened) individuals among you, in consequence of conversion, 1Co 6:11.—τὸ πάσχα, the passover) The epistle was written about the time of the passover, 1Co 16:8.—ἡμῶν, [our or] of us) Christians. The Jewish passover was a type of the Christian and new passover.—ἐτύθη) was sacrificed. Paul speaks in the past time; he was much more likely to speak in the present, as his scope so required, if he had acknowledged the sacrifice of the Mass. Hesychius: ἐτύθη, ἐσφάγη.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_5:7. Ἐκκαθάρατε τὴν παλ. ζύμ.] From what has been already said, the meaning apart from the figure cannot, it is plain, be: Exclude from your communion the incestuous person (Chrysostom, Theophylact, Cornelius a Lapide, Zeger, Estius, Michaelis) and other notorious offenders (Rosenmüller), but: Empty your church of the sinful habits, which still remain among you from your pre-Christian condition (as a residuum of the unregenerate παλαιὸς ἄνθρωπος, Rom_6:6; Eph_4:22; Col_3:9). Comp Theodoret, Calvin, de Wette, Osiander, Ewald, Maier, Neander, Hofmann. Flatt, Pott, and Rückert join the two ideas together; but this is unwarranted and against the unity of sense of the passage. Respecting τὴν παλαιάν, comp Ignatius, Magnes. 10 : τὴν κακὴν ζύμην τὴν παλαιωθείσαν καὶ ἐνοξίσασαν.

The expression ἐκκαθάρ. (comp Plato, Euth. p. 3 A; LXX. Deu_26:13) is selected in view of the custom, based on Exo_12:15 ff; Exo_13:7, and very strictly observed among the Jews, of removing all leaven from the houses on the day before the Passover (see as to this, Schoettgen, Hor. p. 598; Lund, Jüd. Heiligth., ed. Wolf, p. 1111 f.), which was meant to be a sign of the moral purification of the house (Ewald, Alterth. p. 475 f.).

νέον φύραμα] a fresh kneaded mass, i.e. figure apart: a morally new church, freshly restored after the separation from it of all immoral fermenting elements, its members being νέοι ἄνθρωποι through Christ (Col_3:9-10). As respects the difference between νέος and καινός, see on Col_3:10.

καθώς ἐστε ἄζυμοι] in accordance with your unleavened character, i.e. in keeping with the ethical nature of the position of a Christian, which, as such, is separated from sin. For this ἄζυμον εἶναι is the essential characteristic in the Christian,who is, it is taken for granted, reconciled to God, born again, spiritually dead and risen again with Christ (Rom_6:2 ff.), and who as a new κτίσις of God (2Co_5:17; Eph_4:24; Col_3:10) in the καινότης πνεύματος (Rom_7:6) is free from the law of sin and death (Rom_8:2), and constantly developing the powers of a divine life towards perfect holiness (1Co_6:11; 2Co_6:14 ff.), being alive unto God as His child in whom Christ lives (Gal_2:19-20)and sin in such an one (the being leavened) is abnormal. Hence Christians areaccording to this higher mode of regarding the position of a Christian

ἄζυμοι. There is as little warrant for rendering ἐστέ here by esse debetis (Flatt, Pott, Billroth, following Chrysostom, Theophylact, al[807]) as in Luk_9:55. Rosenmüller holds that ἄζυμ. has here its proper meaning: as ye now vivitis festos dies azymorum. But ἄζυμος, in fact, does not mean qui abstinet fermento (as Grotius would make out, likening it to ἄσιτος, ἄοινος), but non fermentatus (comp מַצוֹת). Plato, Tim. p. 74 D; Athen. iii. p. 109 B; Gen_19:3; Eze_29:2, al[809] Moreover, Paul could not address these words in that proper meaning to the church as a whole, even if the Jewish-Christians among them still kept the Jewish Passover.

καὶ γὰρ τὸ πάσχα κ.τ.λ[810]] The motive for ἘΚΚΑΘΆΡΑΤΕ Κ.Τ.Λ[811] The emphasis is on τὸ πάσχα,[812] and καὶ γάρ does not mean simply for, etenim, but for also (Hartung, Partikell. I. p. 137 f.; Stallbaum, a[813] Plat. Gorg. p. 467 B), the also introducing the objective relation of things corresponding to the exhortation which had just been given. The paschal lamb slain, and the leaven not purged outwhat a contradiction that is! Paul designates Christ as the Christians paschal lamb which had been slain (Deu_16:6; Mar_14:12; Luk_22:7), because He is the antitype of the Passover lamb under the law, inasmuch, namely, as His blood was shed, not by any means merely as the beginning of redemption which made it possible (Hofmann, Schriftbeweis, II. 1, p. 323), but, according to the whole N. T., as the atonement for believers, and that, too, on the very same day (the day before the feast of the Passover, see on Joh_18:28) on which, from the earliest times, the blood of the paschal lambs had been shed as an expiation for each family (see Ewald, Alterth. p. 466 f.; Keil, § lxxxviii. 11). Comp also Joh_19:36. In connection with this verse it has been justly remarked (comp on Joh_18:28, and Lücke in the Gött. gel. Anz. 1834, p. 2020), that Paul could not with propriety have given this title to Christ, if he had followed the Synoptical account of the day of Jesus death. Comp Introd. to John, § 2. In point of fact, had he followed the tradition of the Synoptists, that death-day, as being the 15th Nisan, would, by the mode of conception necessarily arising from his Jewish nationality, have hindered his calling Christ antitypically the slain Paschal lamb. For a Passover lamb slain on the first day of the feast would have been, to a Jewish mind moulded according to the ancient and venerated appointment of the divine law, a contradictio in adjecto;[817] even supposing that the point of the comparisonwhich, in accordance with the invariable Pauline mode of regarding the death of Jesus (comp also on Joh_1:29), must of necessity be His being slain as a ἱλαστήριον, Rom_3:25were the new divine polity of the holy people, to which the death of Jesus stands, it is said, just in the same relation as the slaying of the paschal lamb in Egypt to the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt (as Hofmann objects). Wieseler, in his chronol. Synopse, p. 374 f. (comp also his Beitr. z. Würdigung d. Ev. p. 266), urges as an argument on the other side, that in 1Co_10:16, τὸ ποτήριον τῆς εὐλογίας, as a technical phrase for the cup in the Lords Supper, shows that this cup was identified with that of the Passo1Co 5:Assuredly! but it shows also, in necessary connection therewith, that Christ slain on the 14th Nisan was the Paschal Lamb of believers. The Supper, therefore, which brought them into fellowship with the body and blood of Christ, could not but present itself to the Christian consciousness as the paschal meal, corresponding to the eating of the paschal lamb, and so, too, the cup in the Supper as the antitype of the paschal cup. Consequently chap. 1Co_10:16, taken in connection with the passage before us, speaks for and not against the account in John. It is, however, from the view held by the primitive church respecting the Supper as the antitype of the paschal meal, that the origin of the Synoptical tradition is to be historically understood. See on Joh_18:28.

[807] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.

[809] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.

[810] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

[811] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

[812] Theodoret renders wrongly, for it is against the order of the words (as if it were καὶ γὰρ ἡμῶν τ. π.): ἔχομεν καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀμνὸν τὴν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἱερουργίαν καταδεξάμενον; comp. Luther and Neander. Erasmus translates correctly: Nam et pascha nostrum.

[813] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[817] This passage, too, therefore goes to establish the position that Johns narrative, and not the Synoptic, is the historically correct one as regards the day of the death of Jesus. Observe how the Rabbinical tradition also agrees with this. See Gemara Bab. in Sanhedr. vi. 2 : Traditio est, vespera Paschatis suspensum fuisse Jesum. It is well known that the 14th Nisan (the Preparation-day) was called ערב פסח, vespera Paschatis. The fabulous circumstances linked with the death of Jesus itself in the passage of the Talmud referred to, do not affect the simple statement as to the time when it took place.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co 5:7 . ἐκκαθάρατε , “Cleanse out” the aor [837] implying a summary , and ἐκ - a complete removal (see parls.; for simple καθαίρω , Joh 15:2 ), leaving the Church “clean”: an allusion to the pre-Paschal removal of leaven (Exo 12:15 ff; Exo 13:7 ). For τ . παλαιὰν ζύμην , cf. Ignatius, ad Magn. , 10, τ . κακὴν ζύμην τ . παλαιωιθεῖσαν κ . ἐνοξίσασαν , applying, however, to Judaism what here relates to Gentile vice. The “old leaven” (denoting not persons the incestuous and his like but influences: see

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_5:7

Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

Purge out the old leaven is an exhortation to purity, as the old leaven is afterwards said to be malice and wickedness. This leaven is said to be old, because in the present apostate state of our nature, what is old is evil. Hence, the old man is a scriptural designation of our corrupt nature. That ye may be a new lump. New, i.e. pure as the new man is the renewed nature. As ye are unleavened. Leaven in this connection is a figurative expression for sin. To say, therefore, that they were unleavened, is to say that they were holy. This was their normal state as Christians. A Christian is a new or holy man. The argument, therefore, is drawn from the acknowledged fact that Christians, as such, are holy. Purge out the leaven of wickedness, that ye may be pure, for believers are holy. For even, (καὶ γὰρ) or, for also. This is a second reason why they should be pure; for Christ our passover is slain for us. Is slain; rather, is sacrificed, as θύω means to kill and offer in sacrifice, or, to slay as a victim. When the paschal lamb was slain, the Hebrews were required to purge out all leaven from their houses, Exo_12:15. The death of Christ imposes a similar obligation on us to purge out the leaven of sin. Christ is our passover, not because he was slain on the day on which the paschal lamb was offered, but because he does for us what the paschal lamb did for the Hebrews. As the blood of that lamb sprinkled on the door-posts secured exemption from the stroke of the destroying angel, so the blood of Christ secures exemption from the stroke of divine justice. Christ was slain for us, in the same sense that the passover was slain for the Hebrews. It was a vicarious death. As Christ died to redeem us from all iniquity, it is not only contrary to the design of his death, but a proof that we are not interested in its benefits, if we live in sin. Our passover viz., Christ. The words ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, (for us), are omitted in all the older manuscripts, and are not necessary to the sense.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

By lump he meaneth the whole body of the Church, every member whereof must be unleavened bread, that is, be renewed in spirit, by plucking away the old corruption.

By alluding to the ceremony of the Passover, he exhorteth them to cast out that unclean person from amongst them. In times past, saith he, it was not lawful for them which did celebrate the Passover, to eat leavened bread: insomuch that he was holden as unclean and unworthy to eat the Passover, whosoever had but tasted of leaven. Now our whole life must be as it were the feast of unleavened bread, wherein all they that are partakers of that immaculate Lamb which is slain, must cast out both of themselves, and also out of their houses and Congregations all impurity.

The Lamb of our Passover.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

old leaven--The remnant of the "old" (Eph 4:22-24) heathenish and natural corruption. The image is taken from the extreme care of the Jews in searching every corner of their houses, and "purging out" every particle of leaven from the time of killing the lamb before the Passover (Deu 16:3-4). So Christians are continually to search and purify their hearts (Psa 139:23-24).

as ye are unleavened--normally, and as far as your Christian calling is concerned: free from the leaven of sin and death (Co1 6:11). Paul often grounds exhortations on the assumption of Christian professors' normal state as realized (Rom 6:3-4) [ALFORD]. Regarding the Corinthian Church as the Passover "unleavened lump" or mass, he entreats them to correspond in fact with this their normal state. "For Christ our Passover (Exo 12:5-11, Exo 12:21-23; Joh 1:29) has been (English Version, "is") sacrificed for us"; that is, as the Jews began the days of unleavened bread with the slaying of the Passover lamb, so, Christ our Passover having been already slain, let there be no leaven of evil in you who are the "unleavened lump." Doubtless he alludes to the Passover which had been two or three weeks before kept by the Jewish Christians (Co1 16:8): the Gentile Christians probably also refraining from leavened bread at the love-feasts. Thus the Jewish Passover naturally gave place to our Christian Easter. The time however, of keeping feast (metaphorical; that is, leading the Christian life of joy in Christ's finished work, compare Pro 15:15) among us Christians, corresponding to the Jewish Passover, is not limited, as the latter, to one season, but is ALL our time; for the transcendent benefits of the once-for-all completed sacrifice of our Passover Lamb extends to all the time of our lives and of this Christian dispensation; in no part of our time is the leaven of evil to be admitted.

For even--an additional reason, besides that in Co1 5:6, and a more cogent one for purging out every leaven of evil; namely, that Christ has been already sacrificed, whereas the old leaven is yet unremoved, which ought to have been long ago purged out.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 7. Purge out therefore the old leaven] As it is the custom of the Jews previously to the passover to search their houses in the most diligent manner for the old leaven, and throw it out, sweeping every part clean; so act with this incestuous person. I have already shown with what care the Jews purged their houses from all leaven previously to the passover; see the note on Ex 12:8-19, and on the term passover, and Christ as represented by this ancient Jewish sacrifice; See Clarke on Ex 12:27, and my Discourse on the Nature and Design of the Eucharist.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

7. Purge out therefore Having borrowed a similitude from leaven, he pursues it farther, though he makes a transition from a particular point to a general doctrine. For he is no longer speaking of the case of incest, but exhorts them generally to purity of life, on the ground that we cannot remain in Christ if we are not cleansed. He is accustomed to do this not infrequently. When he has made a particular statement, he takes occasion to pass on to general exhortations. He had made mention of leaven on another account, as we have seen. As this same metaphor suited the general doctrine which he now subjoins, he extends it farther.

Our Passover Before coming to the subject-matter, I shall say a few words in reference to the words. Old leaven receives that name on the same principle as the old man, (Romans 6:6,) for the corruption of nature takes the precedence in us, previously to our being renewed in Christ. That, therefore, is said to be old which we bring with us from the womb, and must perish when we are renewed by the grace of the Spirit. The verb ἐτύθη, which occurs between the name Christ and the term which denotes a sacrifice, may refer to either. I have taken it as referring to the sacrifice, though this is of no great importance, as the meaning is not affected. The verb ἑορτάζωμεν, which Erasmus rendered “Let us celebrate the feast,” signifies also to partake of the solemn feast which was observed after the sacrifice had been offered up. This interpretation appeared to suit better with the passage before us. I have, accordingly, followed the Vulgate in preference to Erasmus, as this rendering is more in accordance with the mystery of which Paul treats.

We come now to the subject-matter. Paul, having it in view to exhort the Corinthians to holiness, shows that what was of old figuratively represented in the passover, ought to be at this day accomplished in us, and explains the correspondence which exists between the figure and the reality. In the first place, as the passover consisted of two parts — a sacrifice and a sacred feast — he makes mention of both. For although some do not reckon the paschal lamb to have been a sacrifice, yet reason shows that it was properly a sacrifice, for in that rite the people were reconciled to God by the sprinkling of blood. Now there is no reconciliation without a sacrifice; and, besides, the Apostle now expressly confirms if, for he makes use of the word θύεσθαι, which is applicable to sacrifices, and in other respects, too, the context would not correspond. The lamb, then, was sacrificed yearly; then followed a feast, the celebration of which lasted for seven successive days. Christ, says Paul, is our Passover He was sacrificed once, and on this condition, that the efficacy of that one oblation should be everlasting. What remains now is, that we eat, not once a-year, but continually.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(7) Purge out therefore the old leaven.—It is not the offending man who is here spoken of, but it is the spirit in the Church which tolerated the evil, and which is to be purged out of their midst that they may become actually (a new lump) as they are by profession (unleavened).

Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.—Better, Christ our passover is slain; “for us” is not in the best MSS. The word translated “sacrifice” is generally used in the New Testament in the sense simply of “slaying” or “killing” (Mat_22:4; Joh_10:10; Act_10:1; Act_10:13; Act_11:7); and in the similar expressions regarding our Lord (Rev_5:6; Rev_5:12) the word is “wounded.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7. Purge out therefore the old leaven] Reference is here made to the Jewish custom of searching for leaven, which is mentioned in the Talmud, and which probably existed in the Apostles’ time. Because Scripture speaks of ‘searching Jerusalem with candles,’ Zep_1:12, they used to carry out this custom of searching for leaven with great strictness, taking a candle and “prying into every mousehole and cranny,” as St Chrysostom says, so as to collect even the smallest crumb of leavened bread, which was to be placed in a box, or some place where a mouse could not get at it. This ceremony, as Lightfoot tells us (Temple Service, ch. xii. sec. 1) was prefaced by the prayer, “Blessed be Thou, O Lord our God, the King everlasting, Who hast sanctified us by Thy commandments, and hast enjoined the putting away of leaven.” The custom exists among the Jews to this day. The scrupulous care in removing the smallest particle of the bitter substance adds force to St Paul’s injunction. Not the slightest trace of bitterness and vice and wickedness was to be left among Christians, since they kept continual feast upon the Flesh and Blood of the Paschal Lamb, even Jesus Christ. See the discourse in St John 6, itself delivered before a Passover.

that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened] as ye are (called to be) unleavened, i.e. purged free from ‘vice and wickedness’ (1Co_5:8), “so be also in fact.” See note on ch. 1Co_1:2, and Rom_6:3-4. The Christian community was to be a ‘new lump,’ because it was placed among men as a new society—a society, the object and aim of which was to keep itself free from the defilements of the rest of the world. The word translated lump signifies properly a mass of dough, from a verb signifying to mix, knead.

Christ our passover] Meyer here remarks that St Paul regards Christ as having been slain on the day of the Paschal Feast. We may add that he also explains how the Last Supper was called by Christ a Passover (St Luk_22:15). For in truth it was a real Passover, though not the Passover of the old, but of the new Law, a standing witness to the fact that Christ has become our continual food (cf. Aquinas, Lauda Sion, cited by Dean Stanley, “Novum Pascha novæ legis”). Christ was the Passover, (1) because He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev_13:8), of which the Paschal Lamb was a type (cf. St Joh_19:36); (2) because His Blood, sprinkled on the soul, delivers us from the destroying angel; (3) because we feed on His Flesh and Blood (St Joh_6:51-57), and are thereby nourished for our escape from the ‘land of Egypt, the house of bondage.’ This is why we are to purge out the old leaven, because Christ, the Paschal Lamb, has been slain, and we are bidden to keep perpetual feast on Him. It is not improbable (see ch. 1Co_16:8) that this Epistle was written about the time of the Passover. On this point consult Paley, Horae Paulinae in loc.

is sacrificed] Literally, was sacrificed, i.e. once for all. Cf. Heb_7:27; Heb_9:25-26; Heb_10:10. The more literal translation of the passage is, for our Passover was sacrificed, even Christ.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Purge out therefore the old leaven,.... Meaning either the incestuous person, whose crime might well be compared to sour "leaven", and be called old because of his long continuance in it; whom the apostle would have removed from them; this is properly the act of excommunication, which that church was to perform, as a quite distinct thing from what the apostle himself determined to do. The allusion is to the strict search the Jews made (g), just before their passover after leaven, to purge their houses of it, that none of it might remain when their feast began; which they made by the light of a lamp, on the night of the fourteenth of the month Nisan, in every secret place, hole, and corner of the house: or this may be an exhortation to the church in general with respect to themselves, as well as this man, to relinquish their old course of sinning, to "put off concerning the former conversation the old man", Eph 4:22 the same with the old leaven here; it being usual with the Jews (h) to call the vitiosity and corruption of nature , "leaven in the lump"; of which say (i),

"the evil imagination of a man, as leaven the lump, enters into his bowels little, little, (very little at first,) but afterwards it increases in him, until his whole body is mixed with it.''

That ye may be a new lump; that they might appear to be what they professed to be, new men, new creatures in Christ, by their walking in newness of life; and by removing that wicked person, they would be as the apostles were, when Judas was gone from them, all clean through the word of Christ:

as ye are unleavened; at least professed to be. They were without the leaven of sin; not without the being of sin in their hearts, nor without the commission of it, more or less, in their lives; but were justified from it by the righteousness of Christ, and had the new creature formed in their souls, or that which was born of God in them, that sinned not. The apostle compares the true believers of this church to the unleavened bread eaten at the passover, for the grace of their hearts, and the simplicity of their lives; as he does the incestuous man to the old leaven, that was to be searched for, and cast out at the feast:

for even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. This is observed, to show the pertinency of the similes of leaven and unleavened, the apostle had made use of; and to make some further improvement of them, for the use, comfort, and instruction of this church; saying, that Christ is "our passover", the Christians' passover; the Jewish passover was a type of Christ; wherefore Moses kept it by faith, in the faith of the Messiah that was to come; see Heb 11:28 as it was instituted in commemoration of the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, so likewise to prefigure Christ, and the redemption of his people by him. The Jews have a saying (k),

"that in the month Nisan they were redeemed, and in the month Nisan they will be redeemed;''

which was the month in which the passover was kept; and for the confirmation of which, they mention the following texts, Mic 7:15. There is an agreement between the passover, and Christ, in the sacrifice itself, and the qualities of it; it was a "lamb", as Christ is the "Lamb" of God, of his appointing and providing, and fitly so called, for his innocence and harmlessness, his meekness, humility, and patience; it was a lamb "without blemish", as Christ is, without spot and blemish, without the spot of original sin, or blemish of any actual transgression: it was a male, as Christ is the son or man, the head of the body, and the "firstborn" among many brethren; it was a male of the first year; in which it might prefigure Christ in the flower of his age, arrived at man's estate, and having had experience of a variety of sorrows and afflictions. There is also some likeness between them in the separation and slaying of it. The passover lamb was to be "taken out from the sheep, or from the goats"; as Christ's human nature was chosen out from among the people, and, in God's eternal counsel and covenant, separated from the rest of the individuals of human nature, and taken into a federal union with the Son of God, and preordained before the foundation of the world, to be the Lamb slain; it was also wonderfully formed by the Holy Ghost in the virgin's womb, and separated and preserved from the infection of sin; and in his life and conversation here on earth, he was separated from sinners, from being like them, and is now made higher than the heavens. This lamb was kept up from the "tenth" of the month, to the "fourteenth", before it was killed; which might typify preservation of Christ, in his infancy, from the malice of Herod, and, in his riper years, from the designs of the Jews upon him, until his time was come; and it is to be observed, that there was much such a space of time between his entrance into Jerusalem, and his sufferings and death; see Joh 12:11. The lamb was "slain", so the Prince of life was killed; and "between the two evenings", as Christ was in the end of the world, in the last days, in the decline of time, of the age of the world, and even of the time of the day, about the "ninth" hour, or three o'clock in the afternoon, the time between the two evenings; the first evening beginning at noon as soon as the sun began to decline, the other upon the setting of it. There is likewise a comparison of these together to be observed, in the dressing and eating of it. The passover lamb was not to be eaten "raw nor sodden"; so Christ is to be eaten not in a carnal, but in a spiritual way, by faith; it was to be "roast with fire", denoting the painful sufferings of Christ on the cross, and the fire of divine wrath that fell upon him; it was to be eaten "whole", as a whole Christ is to be received by faith, in his person, and in all his offices, grace, and righteousness; not a "bone" of it was to be "broken", which was fulfilled in Christ, Joh 19:36 it was to be eaten "with unleavened bread", which is spiritualized by the apostle in the next verse; and also with "bitter herbs", expressive of the hard bondage and severe afflictions, with which the lives of the Israelites were made bitter in Egypt; and significative of the persecutions and trials that such must expect, who live godly and by faith in Christ Jesus: it was eaten only by Israelites, and such as became proselytes, as Christ, only by true believers; and if the household was too little, they were to join with their "neighbours"; which might typify the calling and bringing in of the Gentiles, when the middle wall of partition was broken down, Christ, his flesh and blood being common to both. The first passover was eaten in haste, with their loins girt, their shoes on, and staves in their hands, ready to depart from Egypt to Canaan's land; denoting the readiness of believers to every good work; having their feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace; their loins girt about with truth, their lights burning, and they like men waiting for their Lord's coming; hasting unto the day of the Lord, being earnestly, desirous of being absent from the body, that they might be present with him: in a word, the receiving of the blood of the passover lamb into a bason, sprinkling it on the lintel, and two side posts of the doors of the houses, in which they ate it, which the Lord seeing passed over those houses, when he passed through Egypt to destroy the firstborn, whence it has its name of the passover, were very significative of the blood of sprinkling, even the blood of Christ upon the hearts and consciences of believers; whereby they are secured from avenging justice, from the curse and condemnation of the law, and from wrath to come, and shall never be hurt of the second death. Thus Christ is our antitypical passover, who was sacrificed, whose body and soul were offered as an offering and sacrifice unto God for us, that he might be proper food for our faith; and also in our room and stead, to make satisfaction to divine justice for all our sins and transgressions.

(g) Misn Pesachim, c. 1. sect. 1. 2. Maimon. Hilch. Chametz Umetzah, c. 2. sect. 3, 4. (h) T. Hieros. Beracot, fol. 7. 4. T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 17. 1. Bereshit Rabba, fol. 29. 4. Caphtor, fol. 38. 2. & 41. 1. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 73. 2. 84. 4. 86. 1. 87. 3. 95. 3, 4. & 119. 4. Baal Hattarim in Lev. ii. 11. (i) Zohar in Exod. fol. 71. 3. (k) T. Bab. Roshhashana, fol. 11. 1, 2. Raya Mehimna in Zohar in Exod. fol. 49. 3.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

Ver. 7. As ye are unleavened] viz. In part sanctified. Every new man is two men. Many a one that is merry in company hath a shrew at home; so have the best their inward troubles. The comfort is, that God overlooks our involuntary infirmities, and accounts us unleavened, when yet there is much still to be purged out. The leper, when his leprosy began but to heal, was pronounced clean, because then he went on still to heal, and his leprosy to shale off.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Purge out therefore ... - Put away; free yourselves from.

The old leaven - The apostle here takes occasion, from the mention of leaven, to exhort the Corinthians to put away vice and sin. The figure is derived from the custom of the Jews in putting away leaven at the celebration of the passover. By the OLD leaven he means vice and sin; and also here the person who had committed the sin in their church. As the Jews, at the celebration of the passover, gave all diligence in removing leaven from their houses - searching every part of their dwellings with candles, that they might remove every particle of leavened bread from their habitations - so the apostle exhorts them to use all diligence to search out and remove all sin.

That ye may be a new lump - That you may be like a new mass of flour, or dough, before the leaven is put into it. That you may be pure, and free from the corrupting principle.

As ye are unleavened - That is, as ye are bound by your Christian profession to be unleavened, or to be pure. Your very profession implies this, and you ought, therefore, to remove all impurity, and to become holy. Let there be no impurity, and no mixture inconsistent with that holiness which the gospel teaches and requires. The apostle here does not refer merely to the case of the incestuous person, but he takes occasion to exhort them to put away all sin. Not only to remove this occasion of offence, but to remove all impurity, that they might become entirely and only holy. The doctrine is, that Christians are by their profession holy, and that therefore they ought to give all diligence to remove everything that is impure.

For even Christ ... - As the Jews, when their paschal lamb was slain, gave great diligence to put away all leaven from their dwellings, so we Christians, since our passover is slain, ought to give the like diligence to remove all that is impure and corrupting from our hearts - There can be no doubt here that the paschal lamb was a type of the Messiah; and as little that the leaven was understood to be emblematic of impurity and sin, and that their being required to put it away was intended to be an emblematic action designed to denote that all sin was to be removed and forsaken.

Our passover - Our “paschal lamb,” for so the word πάσχα pascha usually signifies. The sense is, “We Christians have a paschal lamb; and that lamb is the Messiah. And as the Jews, when their paschal lamb was slain, were required to put away all leaven from their dwellings, so we, when our paschal lamb is slain, should put away all sin from our hearts and from our churches.” This passage proves that Paul meant to teach that Christ had “taken the place” of the paschal lamb - that that lamb was designed to adumbrate or typify him - and that consequently when he was offered, the paschal offering was designed to cease. Christ is often in the Scriptures compared to a lamb. See Isa 53:7; Joh 1:29; 1Pe 1:19; Rev 5:6, Rev 5:12.

Is sacrificed for us - Margin, Or “slain” (ἐτυθη etuthē). The word θύω thuō may mean simply to slay or kill; but it is also used often in the sense of making a sacrifice as an expiation for sin; Act 14:13, Act 14:18; 1Co 10:20; compare Gen 31:54; Gen 45:1; Exo 3:18; Exo 5:3, Exo 5:8,Exo 5:17; Exo 8:8, Exo 8:25-29; Exo 13:15; Exo 20:24; 2Ch 15:16, where it is used as the translation of the word זבח zaabach, “to sacrifice.” It is used as the translation of this word no less than 98 times in the Old Testament, and perhaps always in the sense of a “sacrifice,” or bloody offering. It is also used as the translation of the Hebrew word טבח Taabach, and שׁחט shaachat, to slay, to kill, etc. in Exo 12:21; 1Ki 11:19; 2Ki 25:7; 2Ch 29:22, etc.; in all in eleven places in the Old Testament. It is used in a similar sense in the New Testament, in Mat 22:4; Luk 15:23, Luk 15:27, Luk 15:30; Joh 10:10; Act 10:13; Act 11:7. It occurs no where else in the New Testament than in the places which have been specified - The true sense of the word here is, therefore, to be found in the doctrine respecting the passover. That that was intended to be a sacrifice for sin is proved by the nature of the offering, and by the account which is everywhere given of it in the Old Testament. The paschal lamb was slain as a sacrifice. It was slain in the temple; its blood was poured out as an offering; it was sprinkled and offered by the priests in the same way as other sacrifices; see Exo 23:18; Exo 34:25; 2Ch 30:15-16. And if so, then this passage means that Christ was offered “as a sacrifice for sin” - in accordance with the numerous passages of the New Testament, which speak of his death in this manner (see the note at Rom 3:25); and that his offering was designed to take the place of the paschal sacrifice, under the ancient economy.

For us - For us who are Christians. He died in our stead; and as the Jews, when celebrating their paschal feast, put away all leaven, so we, as Christians, should put away all evil from our hearts, since that sacrifice has now been made once for all.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Purge out therefore the old leaven: if the article την in this place be emphatical (as some think) it ought to have been translated this old leaven, that is, the incestuous person, whose communion with you influenceth your whole communion, which is defiled by it, through your church’s neglect of their duty with reference to him. If the article be not to be taken emphatically, these words may be understood as spoken to every individual member of this church, and is no more than put off the old man; the lusts and corruptions of our hearts, as well as false doctrine, being compared to leaven, which influence our whole man, as leaven doth the whole mass of meal. The first seemeth to be most proper to this place, if we consider what went before, and that the apostle is speaking to the whole church, and had been before speaking of an act to be done by them not singly, but when they should be gathered together in a church assembly; these he commands to purge out the old leaven, that is, this incestuous person.

That ye may be a new lump; that they might be truly a Christian church, reformed from such things as no way agreed with the doctrine and profession of the gospel.

As ye are unleavened; as you are or should be unleavened, like the Jews, who at the passover kept the feast of unleavened bread, when for seven days together they might have no leavened bread in any of their houses, Lev 23:6.

For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; for though the feast of the Jewish passover be ceased, and you be tied to none of those Levitical observations, yet you are under as high an obligation; for Christ, who is the true paschal Lamb, is slain or sacrificed for us, and your old man should be crucified with him, and you no longer serve sin.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

7. Purge out—By expelling the sinner if impenitent.

Old leaven—This refers not to any process by which leaven can be expelled from the impregnated lump; but more probably to the practice at passover of expelling all old leaven from their houses. Note on Mat_26:2. The original reason of this use of unleavened bread was to typify the haste of Israel’s departure from Egypt, as admitting no time for leavened bread to “rise.” But to this was subsequently added the condemnation of leaven, as a type of corruption and a relic of old Egypt; and so a ritual display of expulsion was performed. On the fourteenth day of Nisan, the whole household at night, in formal procession, searched with lighted candles through every nook and corner of their residence for any fancied possible particle of old leaven to be expelled. Hence arises before St. Paul’s mind a full allegory of the purification of the Church by the expulsion of sin.

Our passover—Point after point St. Paul takes in the whole symbolism of the passover. How truly the slaying of the victim was a sacrifice, and how truly Christ was the reality of which the victim was a symbol, we have shown in note on Mat_26:2.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Purge out therefore. The word "therefore" is absent from the best manuscripts, and the abruptness is more emphatic without it. No doubt the metaphor was suggested by the fact that St. Paul was writing about the time of the Passover. (Act_16:8) The most essential requisite of the Jewish regulations, with which his whole training had made him so familiar, was the absolute putting away, and even destruction, of every trace of leaven, which was diligently sought for the day before the Passover began. The putting away of leaven was a type of sanctification. The old leaven. "Old" as belonging to their unregenerate and unconverted condition; a remnant of the day when they had been Gentiles and Jews who had not known Christ. The least willing tolerance of the taint would cause it to work throughout the whole society. As ye are unleavened. Leaven is the type of evil in its secret and corrupting workings. Ideally, Christians can only be addressed as "unleavened," i.e. as "purged from their own old; (2Pe_1:9) and it is the method of Scripture (indeed, it is the only possible method) to address Christians as being Christians indeed, and therefore in their ideal rather than their actual character. Some have taken these words to mean, "You are actually keeping the Passover, and therefore have no leaven among you;" but

(1) the words cannot bear this meaning; nor

(2) was St. Paul likely to appeal so prominently to a Jewish ordinance; and

(3) he is thinking of the Christian Easter, and only borrowing a casual illustration from the Jewish Passover. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; rather, in the true reading, for our passover also was sacrificed even Christ. As Christians, the Gentile Corinthians certainly did not keep the Jewish Passover; but St. Paul reminds them that they too had a Passover that for them, too a Paschal Victim had been offered, whose sacrificial blood had been shed for their redemption (Joh_1:29; 1Pe_1:19) (Comp. Heb_13:10, "We have an altar.

Christ our Passover.

The connection of this illustration with the passage in which it occurs is obvious. The Jews commenced the Feast of Unleavened Bread with the slaying, roasting, and eating of the Paschal lamb. Now, the apostle has been urging the Corinthians to moral purity, and has enjoined them to put away the leaven of wickedness, and keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth; and, as a motive to do this, he reminds them that the Christian dispensation is as a spiritual Passover, which commenced with the sacrifice of "the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world." The Paschal lamb is regarded as a symbol of Christ.

I IT COMMEMORATED A GREAT DELIVERANCE. The Israelites were reminded by the Passover feast of the bondage from which their ancestors had been delivered when they were brought out of Egypt "with a high hand and a stretched out arm." The nation had been emancipated from the tyranny of the Pharaohs, and had been spared the doom of the first born of the people of the land. Christ"s redemption set his people free from the tyranny, the bondage, the unrewarded toil, the darksome night, the dreary hopelessness, of sin; and brought them out into the freedom, the light, the gracious privileges, the glorious hopes, of the gospel.

II IT WAS SLAIN AS A DIVINELY ORDERED SACRIFICE AND OFFERING, Put to death by the head of the family, the lamb was taken to the priest, who sprinkled its blood upon the altar and burned its fat, according to the ordinance. Although the lamb was offered yearly, it was in the first instance that it was regarded most strictly as a sacrifice. Christ was offered once only; "There remaineth no more offering for sin." Yet the Eucharist is a perpetual memorial of the great Sacrifice of Calvary. It is by the willing, accepted, vicarious sacrifice of our Redeemer that mankind have been reconciled and consecrated unto God.

III IT WAS PARTAKEN BY THE FAITHFUL WORSHIPPERS IN THE PASCHAL MEAL. It was in this way that every Hebrew family was reminded of its share in the covenant mercy and faithfulness of the Eternal. As they ate the lamb in the appointed way, and with the appointed observances and accompaniments, the children of Israel were led to appropriate, in faith and obedience, the spiritual provision which the God of their fathers had made for them. In like manner the members of the spiritual commonwealth of Israel "eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man," taking Christ as the nourishment of their souls, and appropriating the strength, the wisdom, the grace of God himself. In the sacrament of the Supper, they who eat and drink in faith participate in the provisions of Divine bounty and love.

IV IT WAS SUGGESTIVE OF INDIVIDUAL, OF HOUSEHOLD, OF NATIONAL, PURITY. In connection with the Paschal meal, several circumstances may be noted. The lamb was without blemish; the house was freed from leaven; all were careful to avoid ceremonial defilement. These arrangements symbolized "holiness unto the Lord," and they remind us that those who regard the Christ of God as their Passover are bound by every sacred consideration to seek that purity of heart, that sanctification of nature, which can alone render a man and a society acceptable to a holy and heart searching God. T.

Vers. 7, 8.

Our Passover.

What the Jews had, we have only with fuller and richer significance. They had the foretastes, the shadows; we have the substance. The events in their history point forward to the greater events in ours. They had a Passover, and so have we; and theirs was a prefigurement of ours.

I CHRIST IS OUR PASSOVER.

1. He was typified by the Paschal lamb. Often called the "Lamb". (for example, Joh_1:29; Rev_5:12)

(1) Appointed by God Israel"s Passover was the Lord s Passover"; (Exo_12:27) "My sacrifice". (Exo_23:18) Jesus is the "Christ," the Anointed of God. "It pleased the Lord to bruise him." Here is our confidence, that our Passover is the Lord"s Passover, appointed and approved by the Eternal: "My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Salvation by the cross is God"s plan of salvation; it must, therefore, fully commend itself to God.

(2) Innocent. Here is the pathos of the cross. He died not for his sins, but for ours. He had not transgressed, but we had, and therefore he died.

(3) Without blemish. "With the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish". (1Pe_1:19) Keen unfriendly eyes were upon Christ, but the reluctant verdict was "no fault." "Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners". (Heb_7:26)

(4) Slain, Christ crucified. The converging point shedding of blood there is no remission." The Paschal lamb was slain by those for whose welfare and safety it was appointed; so Christ was crucified by men whom he came to redeem. No bone broken. (comp Exo_12:46 with. Joh_19:36)

(5) The blood sprinkled. The blood shed is not enough, it must be applied. The blood of the Paschal lamb was applied with a bunch of hyssop, a type of "faith" which, though apparently small and insignificant, brings the blood of Christ into saving contact with the heart.

(6) The flesh eaten. We have to feed upon Christ. "My flesh is meat indeed." The Passover was a feast; the idea of enjoyment is involved. So those who feast upon Christ obtain truest happiness. The Paschal lamb was eaten by the Israelites with loins girded, shoes on feet, staff in hand; so the followers of Christ, when they become such, confess themselves to be strangers and pilgrims upon the earth. The lamb was eaten in Egypt. So we are saved as sinners; we have not to come up out of the Egypt of corruption. We have not to get ourselves ready for Christ; we are ready when we are lost and desire to be found of him. Many are hindered by their "unworthiness;" they want to be holy before they seek salvation, which means that the patient desires to be cured before he sends for the doctor. And he comes to us; we do not come to him, we are in Egypt when we first behold the Lamb of God.

(7) The whole eaten. We have not to take a part of Christ. We have to accept the full terms of salvation, not those only that most please us. Christ and his cross as well as Christ and his crown.

(8) Eaten with bitter herbs. So repentance should accompany faith. We should have bitter sorrow for bitter sins. Our sins were very bitter to him. We have never tasted sin fully only a part of it, the sweeter part of it. He tasted the bitter part for us.

2. Identified with deliverance from wrath and bondage.

(1) From wrath. The destroying angel was abroad, and smote every house unprotected by the sprinkled blood. So the wrath of God falls upon the rejecters of Christ, but those upon whose hearts and consciences the blood of Christ is sprinkled are preserved from the stroke of Divine justice. At the cross "righteousness and peace have kissed each other". (Psa_85:10) The blood of the Paschal lamb made the Israelite perfectly safe; we are made so by the blood of Christ.

(2) From bondage. The Passover and the Exodus are indissolubly united. So in our spiritual history. When God pardons, the bondage of Satan is destroyed. We are no longer slaves of the devil, but children of God. And this becomes manifested; justification and sanctification, joined by God, are not put asunder. We begin a new life; we depart from our old master; we "spoil the Egyptians," for we bring everything with us out of the old life that is worth bringing; and our faces are set towards the new Jerusalem, the everlasting home of the redeemed.

II THE INFLUENCE OF OUR PASSOVER ON OUR LIFE. At the Passover the Jews were exceedingly anxious to get rid of every particle of leaven; (Deu_16:4) so all who can call Christ their Passover should search and purify their hearts. As the Feast of Unleavened Bread followed the slaying of the Paschal lamb, so the unleaven of righteousness, of godly life, should abide with all who have part in the great Passover. This is "keeping the feast." It is then a feast, a time of joy to the believer, when all leaven of "malice and wickedness" is excluded. The "unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" is not only wholesome, it is surprisingly sweet. The influence of Christ"s death is not only towards salvation, but towards holiness. If we are his we must depart from evil. We must have works as well as faith the former a natural outcome of the latter. The one is not without the other the Passover and unleavened bread go together. Profession by all means, but certainly practice as well. We must show that we are out of Egypt by a repudiation of Egyptian manners. "Christ our Passover;" "For to me to live is Christ. H.

Vers. 7, 8.

The Christian life a Paschal feast.

The mention of leaven recalls to the apostle"s mind the Jewish Passover, in connection with which the putting away of leaven was strictly enjoined. A most careful search was made forevery remnant of the forbidden substance, especially in later times, when every hole and corner was ransacked with candles. What was done then with leaven should be done now with that of which leaven is the type. (comp Ex 12)

I CHRIST OUR PASCHAL LAMB. Note the main points of correspondence between the type and the antitype.

1. The lamb was to be without blemish. Jesus Christ was "holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners"; (Heb_7:26) "a lamb without blemish and without spot". (1Pe_1:19)

2. The lamb was slain. It was a sacrifice, the victim"s life going for the life of the people. Jesus Christ was crucified for us, "bearing our sins in his body upon the tree". (1Pe_2:24)

3. The blood of the lamb was sprinkled "on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses." It was not enough that the blood was shed, it must also be put as a mark on the door. "And when I see the blood, I will pass over you". (Exo_12:7, Exo_12:13) Even so the blood of Jesus Christ must be applied to each individual sinner ere it can avail to deliver from the condemnation. Personal faith in him appropriating his atoning sacrifice, is the hand that dips the hyssop in the basin and sprinkles the blood on the house.

4. The lamb was to be eaten that night by the household. Its blood was their protection, its flesh their food. Jesus Christ is our Life as well as our Atonement. The believer sheltered by his blood draws his nourishment from him. (Joh_6:51)

II THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AN UNLEAVENED FESTIVAL.

1. It is a festival. "Let us keep the feast." There is no special reference to the Lord"s Supper, but to the whole Christian life. What the Paschal week was to the Jew, the believer"s life is to be to him. It is to be

(1) consecrated to God, and

(2) spent in grateful remembrance of God"s redeeming mercy.

All through let us keep festival in view of the Lamb slain, with the joy of those who have been delivered from bondage.

2. It is to be kept without leaven. All sin is to be purged out. The Christian is ideally unleavened. Theoretically no leaven was to be found in the houses of Israel during the Passover, although some of it might escape the most diligent search; and so believers, as they stand in Christ, are dead to sin. This is the high calling which we are to make our own by putting away all sin. Let us be in reality what we are in idea (@1Pe 2:9) let us be a holy people. Every form of vice and wickedness must be cast away as inconsistent with our unleavened condition, and only "the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" be found in our homes. A pure, transparent, honest life, corresponding in all things to the truth, becomes those who rightly "keep the feast. B.

HOMILIES BY J. WAITE

Vers. 7, 8.

Christ our Passover.

At no point is the relation between Christianity and the old economy of the Law more profoundly interesting and significant than at that which is indicated in this passage. Of the Passover it is emphatically true that it was as a "shadow," of which the substance, the body, is in Christ. The memorial of that grand Divine interposition by which the Hebrews passed out of their primitive state of miserable subjection to a foreign power into that of a free and independent people with Jehovah as their King, it also foreshadowed the great redemption of the Church, and the establishment of that eternal kingdom of which Christ is the living Lord. Consider

(1) The analogy;

(2) the exhortation based on it.

I THE ANALOGY. "Christ our Passover." Both in the type and in the antitype we have:

1. A vicarious sacrifice. The slaying of the Paschal lamb, which was the leading feature in the whole Passover festival, was clearly of this nature. The lamb was a blameless creature, the very emblem of simple, guileless innocence. It had no share in the sins and sorrows of the people. Unlike them, it needed no redemption. It was the victim of their necessities. It suffered death for their sakes, died to serve the interests of their life. The broad mark of resemblance, in this respect, between the lamb and Christ is the very heart and core of the meaning of the text. In him we see the highest expression of that great law of self sacrifice which pervades the universe, and of which the slaying of the Paschal lamb (as, indeed, the slaying of every lamb) was one of the lower forms. "Not for himself was he cut off; Wounded for our transgressions;" "Slain for us." The innocence of the lamb, and especially the fact that it was "without blemish," the very flower of the flock, was typical of his sinless perfection, his absolute exemption from the evil that belongs to us. While its patient yielding up of its life dimly imaged forth the sublime self surrender of his love, when, for our sakes, he "offered himself without spot unto God.

2. The instrument of a great deliverance. The sprinkling of the blood on the door posts of the Israelites was both the condition of their safety and the sign and pledge to them that they were safe. (Heb_11:27)

There could be no fitness in the phrase, "Christ our Passover," except as meaning that the blood of Christ is to us the means of an infinitely greater deliverance. Salvation from death for the human race, through the virtue of his death as its Representative and Head, is the fundamental truth of the Christian system. On this truth rests the whole fabric of the kingdom of God among men. It is a kingdom founded, built up, consummated, glorified, by the power of a crucified Redeemer. We are reminded how

All the souls that are were forfeit once, And he who might the vantage best have took Found out the remedy.

"We have redemption through his blood," delivered by it from "the power of darkness." And the destroying angel cannot touch the house that has taken shelter under the shield of its efficacious grace.

3. The pledge and seal of a consecrated life. The first Passover marked the beginning for the Hebrews of a new and distinctly national existence. However slow they may have been to recognize the full meaning of this, the most prominent feature of their position ever after was that principle of separation and consecration to the Lord, of which the blood of the Paschal lamb was the symbol and the seal. Special emphasis is given to this by the fact that the Passover was at first a purely family observance. Its moral influence began at the very fountainhead of national life the family circle. It was thus the memorial of a covenant that existed before the Law, before the priesthood; and may well be regarded as prefiguring a grace that is independent of all national and ecclesiastical conditions, all Churches, priesthoods, ritual orders the bond of the fellowship of the elect and reconciled children of God. Thus is participation in Christ, "our Passover," the beginning of a new life, the seal of a new Divine relationship, the charter of spiritual freedom, the pledge of personal consecration, the passport to citizenship in the eternal kingdom of God.

II THE EXHORTATION. "Wherefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven," etc. The seven days" Feast of Unleavened Bread followed the slaying of the Paschal lamb. In "the feast" the apostle may possibly have indirect reference to that sacred observance of "the Lord"s Supper," in the institution of which he himself developed the Jewish Passover into its simpler Christian form. (Luk_22:15, Luk_22:16) This also, though no sacrifice, is both a memorial and a prophecy. "As often as ye eat," etc.. (1Co_11:26) But the reference is far broader. It indicates the life long feast of Christian fellowship and service. We are reminded:

1. That the value of all the solemnities of our religion sabbaths, sacred seasons, special Divine manifestations, acts of worship, etc. lies in the influence they exert on our personal character and conduct. Let our daily life be a "sacrament," a solemn yet joyous Passover of love, and gratitude, and trust, and praise.

2. That in order to this we must be "purged from our old sins. The evil of the past must be resolutely abandoned. "Malice and wickedness" cast out from our dwellings, that "sincerity and truth" may take their place. Simplicity of mind, singleness of heart, honesty of purpose, these are the cardinal Christian virtues, the very "bread and staff of life" to all Christian strength and nobleness. W.

HOMILIES BY D. FRASER Vers. 7, 8.

The Passover and the Lord"s Supper.

The Lord"s Supper is not the Passover; but the one sprang from the other, and is to Christians what the other was to Hebrews, the memorial of redemption.

I THE MEANING OF THESE ORDINANCES. In the Passover were two parts, closely connected and yet distinct.

1. The sacrifice of an unspotted lamb.

2. The feast on the sacrifice kept by each household.

Under the established ritual in Israel, the former was rendered at the sanctuary. It required an altar, and the hand of an authorized priest or Levite. The latter was within the domestic circle. It required no other celebrant than the head of a household. There was no altar, but a family table. The service was not propitiatory, but commemorative and social. The Lord"s Supper can never be clearly understood if these two elements are superstitiously confused together. There is an exhibition, not a renewal, of the sacrifice of Christ. The altar has been served, and its occupation is gone. We have no more need of altar on earth, or sacrificing priest. Christ our Passover "has been sacrificed." What remains is the feast of commemoration and communion; and for this a table only is wanted, with one to preside and lead the service, not a priest to interpose between the Christians and Christ. But while these two things are not to be confounded, they are not to be put apart in our thoughts. It is not enough to say of the Lord"s Supper that it is a social pledge of Christian friendship and a common hope. It may not be dissociated from the impressive thought and fact of Christ"s atonement for our sins; and we cannot regard those who deny the propitiatory character and value of the Lord"s death as competent to administer or partake of the Lord"s Supper. The Passover was a family service, because it commemorated the redemption of a nation which was reckoned in tribes according to families. The Lord"s Supper is observed by groups, congregations, or organized companies of Christians, because it commemorates the redemption of the Church which is arranged and reckoned in congregations or groups, all forming one "household of faith.

II THE COMMUNICANTS. "Let us keep the feast." No alien or uncircumcised person might partake of the Paschal supper; but all the congregation of Israel was charged to observe this ordinance, for redemption was not the privilege of the few, but the joy of the whole nation. And for the occasion, distinctions of rank and opulence within the nation were ignored. As all classes had shared the bondage, so were all classes to share the joy of redemption. Let all who have redemption through the blood of Christ "keep the feast" of the Lord"s Supper, and that in obedience to his command, not as and because they think proper, but as and because the Lord has appointed it in his Church. And let no difference of rank, wealth, or social position be recognized. The eminent and the obscure, the rich and the poor, the master and the servant, are at this, if at no other table, to eat of the same bread and drink from the same cup. Such as are aliens from the faith, or uncircumcised in heart, are not entitled to communicate.

III THE DISPOSITIONS WHICH OUGHT TO CHARACTERIZE COMMUNICANTS. The Passover was the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Hence the apostle"s charge, "Purge out the old leaven." We know that the Jews were extremely punctilious in this respect, and searched their houses minutely, lest in a dark corner some particle of leaven might lie unsuspected; for leaven was regarded as a symbol of corruption and of the self propagating power of evil. With similar earnestness should Christians examine themselves, and so eat and drink of the Lord"s Supper. Away with the old leaven; the tendency to corruption which belongs to the old life is sin. Away with malice and wickedness; purge out even the smallest fragments of unholy disposition and temper, and keep the feast with sincerity and truth. The Corinthians were required to prove their sincerity by excluding from communion a certain "wicked person," whose conduct had brought reproach on the Christian name. So must we be ready at all times to prove our sincerity by renouncing fellowship with unrighteousness and concord with Belial. They were also required to have "truth in the inward parts," and so are we. We fall short of that strength of faith, fervour of love, and depth of humility which would well become communicants at the holy table of our Lord; but at all events we may bring, and ought to bring, to the feast hearts honest and true. "Lord, thou knowest all things." Thou knowest our shortcomings, perversities, stupidities, follies, prejudices, errors, and faults; but "thou knowest that we love thee." We are not at thy table playing a part or affecting devotion to thee in order to be seen of men. Far from us be such ghastly hypocrisy! Ours be the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. F.

The Christian Church as unleavened.

ye are unleavened." The idea of the Church is of a pure and unadulterated and uncorrupted mass, and every individual member of the Church is under obligation to aid in securing and maintaining the purity. The Church must put out, purge out, and keep out, the very relics of the old leaven. Reference is made in the figure which St. Paul uses to the Jewish custom of searching for leaven, which was probably retained in the apostle"s time. "Because Scripture speaks of "searching Jerusalem with candles", (Zep_1:12) they used to carry out this custom of searching for leaven with great strictness, taking a candle and "prying into every mouse hole and cranny," as St. Chrysostom says, so as to collect even the smallest crumb of leavened bread, which was to be placed in a box or some place where a mouse could not get at it.

I THE CHRISTIAN CALL TO BE UNLEAVENED. "Ye are not called unto uncleanness, but unto holiness." The apostles were especially called to witness to a truth by word of lip; but, while each member was equally called to speak for Christ, the testimony of the Church, as a whole, was to be the testimony of its purity. Its very aim was to be to keep itself separate and free from the evils and defilements of the world. Show how far the modern Church may be regarded as having forgotten the Divine call unto "uncorruptness.

II THE CHRISTIAN PERIL OF BECOMING LEAVENED. A peril coming

(1) from without, in the attractions of worldly pleasure and success;

(2) from within, by the defection of individuals, and their evil influence, or by the unwatchfulness and neglected spiritual culture of many. When Christians cease to find their joy in God, they easily seek for it in the world and in worldly things.

III THE CHRISTIAN CARE TO KEEP UNLEAVENED. This care should characterize each for himself, and each for the other. And it should ever be regarded as the great life burden of the Christian and the Church. It must cost constant watchfulness and effort; and he who would be pure must learn how to deal sternly with himself. R.T.

Christian fellowship a Passover feast.

The sentence, "Even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us," appears to be suddenly inserted in the paragraph, without any immediately evident connection with it. Such connection we seek to discover, and then we would press home that particular duty which the apostle is so earnestly urging upon the Corinthian Church. Exactly rendered, St. Paul"s words are, "For also Christ our Passover is slain." There is no word for "even;" the words "for us" are not found in some of the best manuscripts; and the order of the words is very carefully arranged, so as to throw the stress of the sentence on the term "is slain." The apostle has some point to impress by this fact, "Christ is slain:" he is not "about to be slain," or "being slain;" it is an accomplished, completed, historical fact, "he is slain;" "he has been slain." From a reference in one of the later chapters, we find that St. Paul wrote this Epistle to the Corinthians just about the time of the Passover; his mind was occupied with the associations of this feast, and so, in a very natural way, he took his illustration from it. Reverting to the original appointment of the Passover, we observe that the Lord designed to come in one last and overwhelming judgment on the rebellious Egyptians. God"s people dwelt in the very midst of them, but no Divine judgments hung over them. Still, it was necessary that, by some sign, the Israelites" houses should be distinguished from others. The observance of an appointed sign would prove the obedience of Israel, and clearly mark the judgment as Divine. The point in the matter to which St. Paul now directs attention is, however, this the slaying of the lamb was the beginning of the Feast of the Passover, or of Unleavened Bread, if the lamb was killed, the feast time had plainly begun, (see Exo_12:18) and no leaven ought to be found in their habitations. This is the thing on which the apostle fixes for the enforcement of his counsel. It is as if he had said, "This is the time of the Christian feast of the unleavened. "Christ our Passover is sacrificed;" the purity time has therefore come. Our feast is not indeed for seven days only, but for our whole life. We too are under the most solemn responsibilities; pledged to lives of holiness; bound to cleanse out every relic of the old leaven of sin and self will, urged by every persuasion to "perfect holiness in the fear of God;" and set upon "possessing our vessels in sanctification and honour. We must be practically what we are theoretically, a new and regenerated society. Dwelling on the Christian suggestions of the text, we notice

I THE SLAYING OF THE CHRISTIAN PASSOVER LAMB. Limit the thought on this to the one thing that is prominently in the apostle"s mind. The word "Passover" is used by him for that seal which marked the Israelites off from the Egyptians, so that the destroying angel might pass over their houses. The blood of the lamb, sprinkled on the lintel and posts, was the sign that marked them as the Lord"s obedient people, the objects of his grace, experiencing then a preservation which was to be followed by a glorious deliverance. This feature of the old Passover may be pressed on the Christian Church. The apostle says, "You too are marked off as God"s; for you the Passover Lamb has been slain; on you the blood has been sprinkled; for you the great deliverance has been wrought; you are actually now sealed over, as a Christian Church, unto God, by the blood of the everlasting covenant.

II THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THOSE SPRINKLED WITH THE PASSOVER BLOOD. As sealed over to God, Israel was bound to realize what was involved in their side of the covenant into which they had entered. On God"s side, the covenant pledged fatherly interest, unceasing care, gracious provision for all need, and the fulfilment of certain defined promises. On man"s side, it pledged obedience, service, and above all else, separation from the world, and purity. God impressed his claim to this purity by instituting the seven days of unleavened feast immediately on the sealing of the covenant, enjoining that what they did symbolically for seven days they were in moral and spiritual manner to do all their days. St. Paul applies this to the Corinthian Christians, who had, as it were, entered fully into covenant with God, seeing that Christ, their Passover, had been slain. They too should remember to what moral life and conduct they were pledged. They must realize a spiritual separation from evil; holiness becometh the people of God.

Press that each of us should seek to realize the responsibilities of our Christian standing. This is the time when, in home, and family, and society, and business, and the Church, we have to remember that we are "called unto holiness." Christ is sacrificed, and this is the time of "feast of the unleavened. R.T.

Vers. 7, 8.

Keeping the Christian feast of the unleavened.

Give, in introduction, a careful description of the old Passover. Observe especially that

(1) there was a sacrificed lamb;

(2) that its blood became a protection and a sign;

(3) that the meat of the lamb was partaken of together;

(4) that all the food was unleavened; and

(5) that the loins were girt ready for a journey.

Then show how this old Passover may be regarded as realized in the Christian feast.

1. Jesus is the slain Lamb.

2. His blood is the Church"s protection and sign.

3. His truth and love that is, he himself is the Church"s food.

4. The spirit in which we share our Divine food is that of sincerity and truth, which is represented by the "unleavened.

5. We share as those who belong to the heavenly, and therefore say, "This is not our rest." Press that the presence of the leavened, the guileful, and the sinner spoils the simplicity and purity of our Christian feast. R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Purge out therefore the old leaven - Both of sinners and of sin. That ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened - That is, that being unleavened ye may be a new lump, holy unto the Lord. For our passover is slain for us - The Jewish passover, about the time of which this epistle was wrote, ver. 11, was only a type of this. What exquisite skill both here and everywhere conducts the zeal of the inspired writer! How surprising a transition is here, and yet how perfectly natural! The apostle, speaking of the incestuous criminal, slides into his darling topic, - crucified saviour. Who would have expected it on such an occasion. Yet, when it is thus brought in, who does not see and admire both the propriety of the subject, and the delicacy of its introduction?

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

7. “Purify out the old leaven in order that you may be a new lump, as you are free from leaven: for Christ indeed was made our Passover.” The summary of this verse is a most explicit commandment to get sanctified wholly, since in this way alone can we be thoroughly expurgated and made free from the old leaven of sin; Christ Himself, who is and always was perfectly free from sin, being our paragon. You know how explicit the law of Moses was in reference to the bread used in the Passover festival? It had to be perfectly free from leaven in order to represent Christ, who is perfectly free from sin. Hence you see we are to have the very purity of Christ Himself, which is original in Him, but exotic in us, having been relegated to us and conferred on us by the Holy Ghost.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, even as ye are unleavened. For our passover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ :

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

7. Purge out therefore the old leaven. Let the leaven of impurity be removed, by putting out the fornicator, that the church may be pure from the impure leaven, or influence. So, too, each one must cleanse his own heart. For even Christ our passover, etc. At the passover, Jews were required to put all leaven from their houses (Exod. 12:15). As we have a Paschal Lamb, slain for us, the church should cleanse out the leaven of sin.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

7. [οὖν] after ἐκκαθάρτε. Omit אABDEFG, Vetus Lat. Vulg. and Peshito. C inserts it. It is an obvious endeavour to soften abruptness. See below, 1Co 5:13.

[ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν] before ἐτύθη. Omit אABCDEFG. Rec. inserts with Peshito.

7. ἐκκαθάρατε. See Critical Note. Reference is here made to the Jewish custom of searching for leaven, which is mentioned in the Talmud, and which probably existed in the Apostles’ times. Because Scripture speaks of ‘searching Jerusalem with candles,’ Zep 1:12, they used to carry out this custom of searching for leaven with great strictness, taking a candle and ‘prying into every mousehole and cranny,’ as Chrysostom says, so as to collect even the smallest crumb of leavened bread, which was to be placed in a box, or some place where a mouse could not get at it. This ceremony, as Lightfoot tells us (Temple Service, ch. 12 sec. 1), was prefaced by the prayer, ‘Blessed be Thou, O Lord our God, the King everlasting, Who hast sanctified us by Thy commandments, and hast enjoined the putting away of leaven.’ The custom exists among the Jews to this day. The scrupulous care in removing the smallest particle of the bitter substance adds force to St Paul’s injunction. Not the slightest trace of bitterness and vice and wickedness was to be left among Christians, since they kept continual feast upon the Flesh and Blood of the Paschal Lamb, even Jesus Christ. See the discourse in John 6, itself delivered before a Passover.

ἵνα ἦτε νέον φύραμα, καθώς ἐστε ἄζυμοι. As ye are (called to be) unleavened, i.e. purged free from ‘vice and wickedness’ (1Co 5:8), ‘so be also in fact.’ See note on ch. 1Co 1:2, and Rom 6:3-4. The Christian community was to be a ‘new lump,’ because it was placed among men as a new society—a society, the object and aim of which was to keep itself free from the defilements of the rest of the world. The Apostles of Christ constantly speak of Christians, not as they are in fact, but in view of the purpose of God in calling them.

καὶ γάρ. ‘And I give you an additional reason. Purge out the old leaven, not merely because of its intrinsic vileness, but because Christians have a perpetual Passover to keep.’

τὸ πάσχα ἡμῶν. Meyer here remarks that St Paul regards Christ as having been slain on the day of the Paschal Feast. We may add that he also explains how the Last Supper was called by Christ a Passover (Luk 22:15). For in truth it was a real Passover, though not the Passover of the old, but of the new Law, a standing witness to the fact that Christ has become our continual food (cf. Aquinas, Lauda Sion, cited by Dean Stanley, ‘Novum Pascha novæ legis’). Christ was the Passover, (1) because He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8), of which the Paschal Lamb was a type (cf. Joh 19:36); (2) because His Blood, sprinkled on the soul, delivers us from the destroying angel; (3) because we feed on His Flesh and Blood (Joh 6:51-57), and are thereby nourished for our escape from the ‘land of Egypt, the house of bondage.’ This is why we are to purge out the old leaven, because Christ, the Paschal Lamb, has been slain, and we are bidden to keep perpetual feast on Him. It is not improbable (see ch. 1Co 16:8) that this Epistle was written about the time of the Passover. On this point consult Paley, Horae Paulinae in loc.

ἐτύθη. Literally, was sacrificed, i. e. once for all. Cf. Heb 7:27; Heb 9:25-26; Heb 10:10. The more literal translation of the passage is, for our Passover was sacrificed, even Christ.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7.] The παλαιὰ ζύμη is not the man, but the crime attaching to their character as a church, which was a remnant of their unconverted state, their παλαιὸς ἄνθρωπος. This they are to purge out from among them. The ἐκκαθάρ. alludes to the careful ‘purging out’ from the houses of every thing leavened before the commencement of the feast of unleavened bread. Schöttgen, Hor. Hebr., in loc., gives a full account of the extreme care with which this was done. See also Stanley’s note.

That ye may be a new lump (opposed to the παλαιὸς ἄνθρωπος of old and dissolute days), as ye are (normally and by your Christian profession) unleavened (i.e. dead to sin and free from it). This indicating the state by profession, the normal state, as a fact, and the grounding of exhortations on it, is common enough with our Apostle,—see Rom 6:3, Rom 6:4: ch. 3:16, al. freq., and involves no tautology here, any more than elsewhere.

An unfortunate interpretation has been given to these words,—‘as ye are now celebrating the feast of unleavened bread;’ and has met with some recent defenders, e.g. Wieseler,—and Conybeare, Life and Epistles of St. Paul, edn. 2, vol. ii. p. 40, note. But first, the words will not admit it; for ἄζυμοι cannot (as joined immediately with ἐν ἀζύμοις, ver. 8) without much harshness be applied in its literal sense to the celebrators of the feast, but must indicate the material which was unleavened, see reff.,—ἄρτον ζυμιτήν, ἄζυμον, Athenæus iii. 109, and Gen 19:3; Exo 29:2. Secondly, the celebration of a Jewish feast would certainly not be predicated without remark of a whole mixed congregation of Gentiles and Jews, even supposing that the Gentile converts did celebrate it with the Jews. It is no answer to this, to cite passages (see Conyb.and Howson, ubi supra), where he seems to treat mixed churches, e.g. Gal 4:8; Rom 7:1; Rom 11:18, as if they belonged wholly to one or other of their component elements. For this is not a parallel case. He would here, as above, be distinctly predicating, as a fact, of the whole church, a practice which he himself would have been the first to deprecate. See Gal 4:10. Thirdly, it is not at all probable that the Apostle would either address the Corinthians as engaged in a feast which he, at Ephesus, was then celebrating, seeing that it would probably be over before his letter could be delivered,—or would anticipate their being engaged in it when they received his letter, if it were yet to come. For be it remembered, that in the sense required, they would only be ἄζυμοι during seven days. Here again, I do not see how the example of “a birth-day letter to a friend in India,” adduced by Mr. Conybeare, as an answer to my objection, will apply. It seems to me that if strictly considered, in detail, it tells my way, not his. But, fourthly,—and even could all the other objections be answered, this would remain in its full force,—the reference is one wholly alien from the habit and spirit of our Apostle. The ordinances of the old law are to him not points on whose actual observance to ground spiritual lessons, but things passed away in their literal acceptance, and become spiritual verities in Christ. He thus regards the Corinthian church as (normally) the unleavened lump at the Passover; he beseeches them to put away the old leaven from among them, to correspond with this their normal state: for, he adds, it is high time for us to be ἄζυμοι in very deed (καὶ γάρ—so Xen. Anab. v. 8. 7, ἀκούσατε, ἔφη, καὶ γὰρ ἄξιον. It introduces a powerful reason, for (on other accounts and) also. See Hartung, Partikellehre, i. 137, 8), seeing that our Passover was sacrificed (see reff.: and cf. Heb 9:26, Heb 9:28), even Christ (the days of unleavened bread began with the Passover-sacrifice): therefore (reff.) let us keep the feast (not the actual Passover, but the continued Passover-feast of Christians on whose behalf Christ has died. There is no change of metaphor: the Corinthians are the living ἄρτοι, as believers are the living stones of the spiritual temple) not in (as our element) the old leaven (general—our old unconverted state), nor (particular) in the leaven of vice and wickedness (the genitives are of apposition,—‘the leaven which is vice and wickedness;’ see Winer, edn. 6, § 59. 8. a), but in the unleavenedness (τὰ ἄζυμα, unleavened things, see Exo 12:15, Exo 12:18) of sincerity and truth. The view here maintained is that of Chrys., καὶ αὐτὸς δὲ ἐπιμένει τῇ μεταφορᾷ, ἀναμιμνήσκων παλαιᾶς αὐτοὺς ἱστορίας, καὶ πάσχα καὶ ἀζύμων, καὶ τῶν εὐεργεσιῶν τῶν τότε καὶ τῶν νῦν, καὶ τῶν κολάσεων καὶ τῶν τιμωριῶν· ἑορτῆς ἄρα ὁ παρὼν καιρός. καὶ γὰρ εἰπὼν ἑορτάζωμεν, οὐκ ἐπειδὴ πάσχα παρῆν, οὐδὲ ἐπειδὴ ἡ πεντηκοστή, ἔλεγεν, ἀλλὰ δεικνὺς ὅτι πᾶς ὁ χρόνος ἑορτῆς ἐστι καιρὸς τοῖς Χριστιανοῖς διὰ τὴν ὑπερβολὴ τῶν δοθέντων ἀγαθῶν. Hom. xv. p. 128.

With regard to the chronological superstructure which has been built (by Wieseler and others) on this passage, that the Epistle was written shortly before Easter, we cannot of course say that the approach of the Passover may not have suggested to the Apostle this similitude: and we know from ch. 16:8 that he was looking forward to Pentecost. But further than this it would not be safe to assume: see Prolegg. to this Epistle, § vi. 3, 4.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7. ἐκκαθάρατε τὴν π. ζύμην. A sharp, summary appeal: ‘Rid yourselves of these infected and infectious remains of your unconverted past,’ even as a Jewish household, in preparation for the Passover, purges the house of all leaven (Exo 12:15 f., Exo 13:7). This was understood as a symbol of moral purification, and the search for leaven as symbolizing infectious evil was scrupulously minute, e.g. with candles to look into corners and mouse-holes for crumbs of leavened bread. Zep 1:12 was supposed to imply this. The penalty for eating leavened bread during the feast was scourging. On compounds with ἐκ see on 3:18, and cf. 2Ti 2:21.

τὴν παλαιὰν ζύμην. It was their acquiescing in the scandal which revealed the presence of a remnant of heathen corruption. The summons to thoroughly purge away all sinful taints cuts deep into the corporate and individual conscience. Each knows the plague-spot in himself. The verb occurs again 2Ti 2:21, and nowhere else in N.T.; also Deu 26:13. With παλαιάν here cf. παλαιὸς ἄνθρωπος, Rom 6:6; Eph 4:22; Col 3:9. Ignatius (Magn. 10) says, ὑπέρθεσθε οὖν τὴν κακὴν ζύμην τὴν παλαιωθεῖσαν καὶ ἐνοξίσασαν. By the evil leaven which has become stale and sour he means Judaism. Note the οὖν.

ἵνα ἦτε νέον φύραμα. ‘That you may be a new lump of dough,’ i.e. may make a new start in sanctification free from old and evil influence.* Cf. οἶνον νέον (Mat 9:17), and see Trench, Syn. § lx. There is only one φύραμα, only one body of Christians, just as there is only one loaf (10:17). See on Luk 12:1 for the evil associations connected with leaven: γέγονεν ἐκ φθορᾶς αὐτὴ καὶ φθείρει τὸ φύραμα (Plutarch). See Hastings, DB. III. p. 90.

καθώς ἐστε ἄζυμοι. This is the proper, the ideal condition of all Christians. ‘Ye are unleavened, having been baptized and made a καινὴ κτίσις in Christ (2Co 5:17; Eph 4:24; Col 3:10), and are becoming in fact what you are in principle and by profession’ (6:11). St Paul habitually idealizes, speaking to Christians as if they were Christians in the fullest sense, thus exemplifying Kant’s maxim that you should treat a man as if he were what you would wish him to be.

It is utterly wrong to take ἄζυμοι literally; ‘ye are without leaven,’ because (it is assumed) they were at that moment keeping the Passover. (1) In the literal sense, ἄζυμος is used of things, not of persons. (2) The Corinthian Church consisted almost entirely of Gentile Christians. (3) The remark would have no point in this context. But the imagery in this passage suggests, though it does not prove, that St Paul was writing at or near the Passover season (cf. 16:8). See Deissmann, Light, p. 333.

καὶ γὰρ τὸ πάσχα ἡμῶν ἐτύθη. Directly, this is the reason for the preceding statement; ‘You are ἄζυμοι, purified from the leaven of your old self, by virtue of the death of your Saviour.’ Indirectly and more broadly, this is a reason for the practical summons at the beginning of the verse: ‘It is high time for you to purge out the old leaven; for the Lamb is already slain and your house is not yet fully cleansed: you are late!’ See Deu 16:6; Mar 14:12; Luk 22:7.* The ἡμῶν serves to link the Christian antitype to the Jewish type.

Χριστός. ‘Even Christ’; last for emphasis, like ὁ κρίνων (Rom 2:1) and ὀ πατριάρχης (Heb 7:4). The force of the Apostle’s appeal is in any case obvious, but it gains somewhat in point if we suppose him to have in mind the tradition which is embodied in the Fourth Gospel, that Christ was crucified on the 14th Nisan, the day appointed for the slaying of the paschal lamb. We may say that the Pauline tradition, like the Johannine, makes the Death of Christ, rather than the Last Supper, the antitype of the Passover, but we can hardly claim St Paul as a definite witness for the 14th Nisan.† On this difficult subject see Sanday, Outlines of the Life of Christ, p. 146; Hastings, DB. 1. p. 411, DCG. II:5; and the literature there quoted.

Nor, again, can this passage be claimed as evidence for the Christian observance of Easter, although such observance would probably be coeval with that of the Lord’s Day. As in Mar 14:12; Luk 22:7, Luk 22:11; Joh 18:28, πάσχα is here used of the paschal lamb, not, as commonly, of the paschal supper or of the paschal octave.

ἐκκαθάρατε without connecting article (א A B D E F G, Vulg. Copt. RV.) rather than ἐκκαθάρατε οὖν (א 3 C L P, Aeth. AV.). On still stronger evidence, ὑπερ ὑμῶν must be omitted after τὸ πάσχα ὑμῶν. Cursives have ἑθύθη for ἐτύθη. Did Ignatius (see above) have οὖν in his text?

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Leaven. Not the sinful man, but evil of every kind, in accordance with the more general statement of the leavening, power of evil in ver. 6. The apostle 's metaphor is shaped by the commands concerning the removal of leaven at the passover : Exo 12:19; Exo 13:7. Compare Ignatius; "Dispense, therefore, with the evil leaven that has grown old [παλαιωθεισαν] and that has gone sour [ενοξισασαν] , and be changed into new leaven which is Jesus Christ" (Epistle to Magnesians, 10.).

New [νεον] . See on Mt 26:29.

Passover [το πασχα] . The Paschal lamb, as Mr 14:12; Luk 22:7.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vv. 7, 8. “Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ, our Paschal lamb, hath been sacrificed. 8. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of purity and truth.”

If the figure applied to the incestuous man or to the vicious, the word ἐκκαθάρειν, to purify by removing, would apply to an act such as the: taking away from among (1Co 5:2), and the: delivering to Satan (1Co 5:5); and the words: that ye may be a new lump, would signify: that ye may present the spectacle of a Church renewed by the absence of every vicious member. But the epithet old, given to leaven, and 1Co 5:8 show that leaven is here taken in an abstract sense: “the leaven which consists of natural malignity and perversity.” The exhortation to purging applies therefore to the action of each on himself, and of all on all, in order to leave in the Church not a single manifestation of the old man, of the corrupt nature, undiscovered and unchecked.

The οὖν, therefore, of T. R. ought, according to most of the Mjj., to be suppressed. It only goes to weaken the vivacity of the imperative. It is well known that among the Jews, on the 14th Nisan, the eve of the first and great day of the feast of Passover, there was removed with great care all the leaven (pain levé, raised bread) which could be found in their houses; and in the evening, along with the celebration of the Paschal feast, the sacred week began, during which nothing was eaten but cakes of unleavened bread. Leaven represented, according to the particular ceremonial of this feast, the pollutions of the idolatry and vices of Egypt with which Israel had broken in coming forth from it. As Israel had providentially carried to the desert that night only unleavened bread, the permanent rite had been borrowed from the historical circumstance (Exo 12:39; Exo 13:6-9). The apostle spiritualizes the ceremony. As the Israelites at every Passover feast were bound to leave behind them the pollutions of their Egyptian life, in order to become a new people of God, so the Church is bound to break with all the evil dispositions of the natural heart, or that which is elsewhere called the old man.

The desired result of this breaking on the part of each one with his own known sin, will be the renewing of the whole Church: that ye may be a new lump. Another allusion to Jewish customs. On the eve of the feast, a fresh piece of dough was kneaded with pure water, and from it were prepared the cakes of unleavened bread which were eaten during the feast. The word νέον, new, does not signify: new as to quality (as καινόν would do), but recent, as to time. The whole community, by this work of purification wrought on itself, should become like a piece of dough newly kneaded. Has not the awakening of a whole Church been seen more than once to begin with submission to an old censure which weighed on the conscience of one sinner? This confession drew forth others, and the holy breath passed over the whole community.

The phrase which follows, as ye are unleavened, has greatly embarrassed commentators, who have explained it as if it were, “ye should be,” which grammatically is inadmissible. Chrysostom thinks of final sanctification, others of baptismal regeneration,—meanings equally impossible. In saying, ye are, the apostle thinks of what they are, not in point of fact, but of right; the idea is the same as in Rom 6:11 : death to sin and life to God, virtually contained in faith in the dead and risen Christ. For the believer nothing more is needed than to become what he is already (in Christ). He must become holy in fact, as he is in idea.

Grotius has proposed to give to ἄζυμος, unleavened, the active meaning belonging to the adjectives ἄσιτος, ἄοινος (abstaining from bread, from wine); according to him, Paul characterizes the Corinthians as persons who no longer feed on leavened bread (in the spiritual sense). But this term cannot be twisted from the definite meaning which it has in the Jewish ritual, and which is perfectly appropriate. They ought to become individually the organs of a new nature, which is in accordance with their true character as beings unleavened so far as they are believers.

The proof that this is what they are in point of right is given in the sequel.

From the time when the Paschal lamb was sacrificed in the temple, no leaven bread was allowed to appear on an Israelitish table; and this continued during the whole feast. Similarly the expiatory death of Christ, containing the principle of death to sin, there begins with His death in the case of the Church and of each believer the great spiritual Passover, from which all sin is banished, as leaven was from the Jewish feast. Every Christian is an azyme (unleavened one).

The particle καὶ γάρ, for also, has for its characteristic the connecting of two facts of an analogous nature (also), the second of which is the ground of the first (for): this is exactly the case here.

The work πάσχα, strictly speaking, passing, denoted God’s passing over Egypt, on the night when He smote the first-born and spared the houses of the Israelites sprinkled with the blood of the lamb. The word was afterwards applied to the lamb itself; in this sense it is taken here.

The words for us, read by T. R., are omitted in the majority of the Mjj.

By the complement ἡμῶν, our, Paul contrasts the Christian Passover with that of the Jews. As the latter began with the slaying of the lamb, ours began with the bloody death of Christ; Χριστός is in apposition to πάσχα. The practical consequence of His death thus understood, and of the new state in which it places believers, is drawn in the following verse.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.