How does 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 connect with the command in Exodus 12:15? Passover Roots • Exodus 12 recounts a literal, historical night when God rescued Israel from Egypt. • Verse 15 commands Israel to sweep every trace of yeast from their homes and eat only unleavened bread for seven days. • Leaven (yeast) quickly permeates dough; God chose it as a powerful picture of how sin works. Command to Remove Leaven: Exodus 12:15 “ For seven days you must eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you must remove the yeast from your houses. Whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day must be cut off from Israel.” • Physical removal—every crumb searched out and burned. • Complete separation—anyone ignoring the command was “cut off,” losing covenant fellowship. • Unleavened bread symbolized a new beginning: Israel left Egypt in haste, without time for leavened dough to rise (Exodus 12:39). Paul Applies the Pattern to the Church: 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 “ Get rid of the old yeast, that you may be a new unleavened batch, as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and of truth.” • “Old yeast” = tolerated sin in the Corinthian congregation (5:1-2). • “New unleavened batch” = believers’ true identity in Christ—made clean by His blood. • “Christ, our Passover lamb” ties back to the original lamb whose blood spared Israel (Exodus 12:3-13; John 1:29). • “Keep the feast” = live daily in light of Passover’s fulfillment, not merely observe a ritual. Shared Themes 1. Removal of Leaven – Exodus: clear out physical yeast. – Corinthians: expel moral and doctrinal corruption (cf. Galatians 5:9). 2. Substitutionary Lamb – Exodus: each household’s lamb died so the firstborn could live. – Corinthians: Jesus, the once-for-all Passover Lamb (1 Peter 1:18-19). 3. Covenant Identity – Exodus: obedience marked true members of Israel. – Corinthians: holiness marks genuine members of Christ’s body (Hebrews 12:14). Practical Implications for Believers • Regular self-examination—search the “house” of the heart for lingering sin. • Swift, decisive action—don’t excuse or negotiate with sin; remove it (Romans 6:12-14). • Celebrate continually—live out “the feast” with sincerity and truth, reflecting Christ’s finished work. • Corporate responsibility—church discipline protects the purity of the whole loaf (1 Corinthians 5:11-13). Key Takeaways • Exodus 12:15 lays the physical pattern; 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 reveals its spiritual fulfillment. • Both passages call for a clean break from the old life because a sacrificial lamb has died in our place. • True celebration of redemption is expressed not in ritual alone, but in lives free from the “yeast” of sin, permeated instead by sincerity and truth. |
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