Christ Our Passover: Removing the Leaven of Sin
Christ the Passover Lamb calls His people to a life cleansed from the leaven of sin.
1 Corinthians 5:6-8 (BSB)
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven works through the whole batch of dough?
7 Get rid of the old leaven, that you may be a new unleavened batch, as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old bread, leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and of truth.
What is the big idea of 1 Corinthians 5:6-8?
Christ the Passover Lamb calls His people to a life cleansed from the leaven of sin.
How does 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 point to Christ?
Jesus Christ is the true Passover Lamb whose sacrifice delivers believers from sin and judgment. Because His death has secured redemption, those who belong to Him are called to live as a purified people, reflecting the new life created through the gospel.
How does 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 relate to the life and ministry of Jesus?
Jesus’ death fulfills the Passover pattern, establishing the foundation for a redeemed people who live in holiness and truth.
Authorial Intent
Paul rebukes the Corinthians for boasting while tolerating sin and calls the church to remove moral corruption just as Israel removed leaven during Passover.
Literary Context
This passage continues Paul’s correction regarding the immoral situation described in 1 Corinthians 5:1–5. The apostle now explains why the church must act decisively: tolerated sin spreads and corrupts the whole community. Drawing from the imagery of Israel’s Passover and the removal of leaven during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Paul illustrates the necessity of moral purification within the church. The theological center of the argument appears in verse 7 where Christ is identified as the Passover sacrifice. This connection grounds ethical correction in the redemptive work of Christ. The passage therefore moves from disciplinary instruction to covenant identity and gospel-shaped holiness.
Historical Context
Paul addresses a congregation influenced by cultural pride and moral tolerance. The church had failed to recognize how unrepentant sin could influence the entire community. Paul draws upon Jewish Passover imagery familiar to early Christians to illustrate the need for communal purification.
Chapter: 1 Corinthians 5
Purge the Evil, Keep the Feast, and Guard the Holiness of the Church
Because Christ our Passover has been sacrificed and the church is called to be a holy people, believers must not tolerate unrepentant, scandalous sin in the body but must exercise disciplined holiness for the purity of the church and the possible restoration of the sinner.