In the previous blog, we saw that Paul does not identify the man as the cause of the problem. His rebuke is directed at the Corinthians. They were puffed up rather than grieved. Consequently, the entire ecclesia was in an unhealthy state.
We also saw that Paul does not expel the man from the ecclesia but hands him over to satan, with the aim that his spirit might be saved.
Now Paul continues his argument. Once again, he addresses not the man, but the ecclesia. He reveals where, in his view, the true cause of the misconduct lay.
1 Corinthians 5 ISA
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
7 Purge out the old leaven, then, so that you may be a fresh lump, just as you are unleavened.
It is striking that Paul does not write that they needed to become unleavened. He says: “just as you are unleavened.” The call, therefore, is to live in accordance with what they already are in Christ. It is precisely from that new identity that Paul calls upon them to purge out the old leaven.
leaven
The leaven was not the man, but the boasting of the Corinthians. They were puffed up when they ought to have been mourning. Their puffed-up attitude was the leaven that leavened the entire ecclesia.
In Scripture, leaven is often a picture of false teaching. The Lord Jesus warned against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. His disciples did not initially understand what He meant. Later, it becomes clear that He was speaking about their teaching (Matt. 16:6, 11-12).
Paul uses that same imagery as well. A little bit of leaven leavens the whole dough. The same applies to erroneous teaching. The Corinthians were no longer standing in the truth; instead, they had allowed themselves to be influenced by teachers who brought a message different from Paul’s. Consequently, all kinds of abuses arose. Virtually the entire First Epistle to the Corinthians deals with the consequences of this.
purging out
When Paul says, “Purge out the old leaven,” he is not calling for the man to be removed from the ecclesia. He is calling on the Corinthians to remove the cause of the abuses: the leaven of false teaching. This aligns seamlessly with the previous blog posts. Here, too, it becomes evident that Paul calls for distancing oneself from deviant teaching and from those who teach it.
7 …For Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
our Passover
At Passover, leaven was removed from the houses, after which the Feast of Unleavened Bread began. Paul applies this imagery to Christ. Through His death and resurrection, a new creation has dawned. Therefore, the old leaven no longer has a place there.
8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of purity and truth.
Paul’s call is therefore not primarily negative, but positive. After all, Christ is our Passover. That is why he calls on the Corinthians not only to purge out the old leaven but, above all, to celebrate the feast within the new creation—not with the old leaven, but with the unleavened bread of purity and truth.
Once again, we see that truth is central to Paul’s argument. Only by holding fast to sound doctrine can the ecclesia truly celebrate as a new creation. That is ultimately the goal of Paul’s argument. The focus is not on discipline and exclusion, but on Christ — our Passover — and the feast of the new creation.