Cleansing Out Leaven
7/9/25 Bible Thought (1 Corinthians 5)
If Christ has been sacrificed for us and we have the greatest gift of all in salvation, how could we abuse His grace and treat His work flippantly?
This is essentially the topic of 1 Corinthians 5.
A man within the Corinthian church was guilty of sexual immorality: he was sleeping with his stepmother! (1 Cor. 5:1).
Now, this probably seems wild to us, but it would’ve been that way back then too. This sort of sexual relationship was outlawed in both Jewish and Roman laws.[1] Hence, Paul points out pagans don’t even act like this!
But then, interestingly enough, Paul rebukes the church. The fact that this man was out-of-bounds was clear, but the church arrogantly condoning it was a larger problem!
The church, as Christ’s body is to be distinct. He, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.
Throughout the Exodus plague narratives, there is a continual sense that Yahweh was making a distinction between His people and the people of Egypt (Ex. 11:7). The climax was of course the Passover where the firstborn son throughout Egypt was destroyed. On the other hand, the Israelites were spared through the Passover lamb’s blood upon their doorways. The Passover celebration in future years was then to be followed by the feast of unleavened bread for one week. Leaving their bread unleavened was a remembrance of the haste with which the people had to escape from the land of Egypt.
Now, in the New Testament, leaven as a corrupting agent is used as a metaphor for sin.
If the church has been ransomed by Christ our Passover, and a distinction has been made between the church and the world then ought there not be a clear difference in the lives of the people?
Paul expects sin of all sorts outside of the church: sexual immorality, greed, swindling, idolatry (1 Cor. 5:10). The world that doesn’t know Christ will look that way and logically be characterized by sin—but the church is to be different.
Paul concluded,
“Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Cor. 5:8).
The believer is a new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17) and if this is the case then certainly the assembly of believers ought to look distinct from a world that is utterly lost in sin!
As a result, the church’s reputation as a blood-bought body of believers matters an awful lot and those who persist in sin like this ought to be cast out of the fellowship.
Giving approval to sins of this nature isn’t loving. No, rather it was the most unloving thing the Corinthians could’ve done! Making someone comfortable in their sin isn’t the goal of the Christian fellowship; instead, we ought to grow together into the likeness of Christ.
While we’ll never be perfect this side of glory (1 Jn. 1:8,10) that doesn’t mean that we don’t deal with sin and that persistent, unrepentant sin of this nature is suddenly okay. There’s a big difference between stumbling and wallowing in sin.
The church was called to address this for the sake of the health of the whole body, for leaven is an infecting agent. If this was allowed to remain, then certainly it would have a negative impact on the other believers who might deem it suddenly appropriate.
Our personal pursuit of holiness and Christlikeness has a corporate effect whether we realize it or not. Likewise, it plays a part in the distinction between the church and the world.
God cares about the lives we lead, and our lives have an impact on others.
Let us then strive by the grace of God to live a life pleasing to Him and commendable before the rest of the saints. In the words of Paul, we ought to “celebrate the festival” living daily with purity, rather than sinful leaven.
[1] Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Romans to Philemon. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 128.