1 Corinthians 5:1-8
Q.1. What sin was being ignored in the Corinthian church? How bad was this breach of discipline? How should such sins be treated by the church? What is the goal of church discipline? – (1 Cor.5:1-5)
Though the Corinthian church considered itself as superior and highly gifted, they had chosen to ignore immorality in their midst – … of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife (1 Cor.5:1). Paul counselled that such an offender should be removed from fellowship (1 Cor.5:2). Such church discipline was with a view to ultimate restoration. Paul wrote – I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus (1 Cor.5:5). Thankfully, restoration was the outcome for the offending man, after Church Discipline was applied (2 Cor.2:1-11).
Q.2. What point was Paul making by referring to leaven in a lump of dough? Why was it necessary to clean out the leaven? In what way is Christ our Passover Lamb? – (1 Cor.5:6-8 c.f. Exo.12:14-15)
God instituted the Passover as a festival of Israel, when He brought the nation out of slavery. It was celebrated concurrently with the seven days Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Lord told Moses – 14 `Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance. 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel (Ex.12:14-15). The yeast required time to have its effect on the dough, in making leavened bread. However, the Exodus required that Israel eat with haste (Ex.12:33-34). Because leaven or yeast was carefully avoided during these festivals, it came to be identified as a symbol of the pervasive influence of sin in a believer. This was how Paul applied it when he asked – … Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? (1 Cor.5:6). To allow sin to fester in the church would have the same effect as does yeast in dough. God commanded Israel to stringently remove all yeast from their homes during this festival. He warned that those who refused to do so would be cut off from the nation. Paul called them to – … celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Cor.5:8). What did Jesus have to do with the Passover? Jesus made a strong connection between His death and the Passover lamb at the Last Supper (Mt.26:26-29; Mk.14:22-25; Lk.22:17-20; 1 Cor.11:23-25). John the Baptizer had identified Jesus as the Lamb of God (Jn.1:29 & 35). Jesus died at the very time the Passover lambs were being slain (Jn.19:14 & 31 c.f. Rev.5:6). Jesus has superseded the Passover celebration.