1 Corinthians 5:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"For Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Cor 5:7-8).

So also Christ calls His teaching leaven (Mt 13:33). Continuing the metaphor, Paul reminds them of the ancient events, the Passover and the unleavened bread, and of the benefits then and now, the sufferings and punishments.

Truly, the present time is a time of feast. He said, "Let us keep the feast," not because it was then Passover or Pentecost, but to show that for Christians every time is a time of feast, because of the abundance of gifts granted to them.

Indeed, what blessing is lacking? For your sake the Son of God became man, freed you from death, and called you into the Kingdom. Having received and still receiving such blessings, should you not keep feast throughout your whole life?

Therefore let no one grieve in poverty, sickness, or trials. For us every time is a time of feast. Therefore Paul also says, "Rejoice always in the Lord. Again I say, rejoice" (Phil 4:4).

During feasts no one dresses in filthy clothing. Let us do the same, because a wedding is being celebrated, a spiritual wedding.

"The Kingdom of Heaven," the Lord says, "is like a king who made a wedding feast for his son" (Mt 22:2). When a king celebrates a wedding, and the wedding of his son, what could surpass such a feast?

Therefore let no one enter dressed in rags. We are not speaking of garments, but of impure deeds.

If, when all were clothed in bright garments, the one man found at the wedding in an unclean garment was cast out with dishonor, consider what care and purity are required of those who enter this wedding.

Yet he reminds them of the unleavened bread not only for this reason. He also wishes to show the kinship of the Old Covenant with the New.

At the same time he explains that after the unleavened bread it is no longer permitted to return to Egypt. Whoever wishes to return will experience what those Israelites experienced, since what happened to them is the shadow of the present.

The Jew shamelessly denies this. If you ask him, he will say nothing great. Or rather, he will say much, but nothing like what we say, because he does not know the truth.

He will say that God brought the Egyptians, who were detaining us, into such a state that they themselves violently drove us out, though before they had detained us. They did not even give us time to leaven the dough.

But if someone asks me, he will hear not of Egypt and Pharaoh, but of freedom from demonic error and diabolical darkness. He will hear not of Moses, but of the Son of God.

He will hear not of the Red Sea, but of Baptism, which abounds in countless blessings and in which the old man is drowned.

Again, if you ask the Jew why he avoids leaven in every way, here too he will be silent and will not give the reason.

One part among them was a type of the future and had its cause in the present. The other, on the contrary, was given to restrain the Jews from vices, so they would not remain forever with the shadow.

Tell me, what does it mean that the lamb is male, without blemish, one year old, and that none of its bones is broken? What does the command mean to invite neighbors, to eat standing, in the evening, and to smear the house with blood (Exod 12)?

He will say nothing else about this, but will only keep repeating about Egypt. But I will say what the blood means, what the evening means, and what it means that all eat together and standing.

Listen, then. After the types and the divine economy of the Old Covenant, listen to what the divine economy is after the coming of Christ to earth.

What is the coming of Christ? It is deliverance from slavery, freedom from former necessity, the honor of adoption by God, the fountain of remission of sins, and truly immortal life for all.

Seeing us from above, tormented by death, bound by the bonds of corruption, and moving along one inevitable and irreversible path, the Word came and received the primordial form according to the counsel of the Father.

He did not entrust the ministry on our behalf to angels or archangels. He Himself took up the struggle for us, obeying the Father's commandments.

Since the pure divine Spirit was inaccessible to all, and not all could feel His direct influence, He Himself, freely gathering Himself, came as He willed.

He did not become in Himself less or worse. He did not lose glory, nor through the abundance of the Father's might was He deprived of what He possessed. Rather, He added what He did not possess.

He came in such a form as they could receive. Since some vessel was needed for the divine Spirit, so that the first might become participants in human nature and essence, He purified and enrolled it.

He separated and cast away what was filthy and unnecessary. What was pure, clear, and bright He illumined, enlightened with radiance, surrounded with splendor, enkindled, and made a small temple.

He nurtured it in chastity and, so to speak, raised it to the rank of an angel. He then took upon Himself bodily the human form, having a spiritual origin and receiving a human appearance.

Therefore Holy Scripture depicted Him most mystically when it said, "Behold the Man whose name is Branch" (Zech 6:12). He is a branch, as it were, according to the Spirit, and a man according to the body.

For "the Holy Spirit will come upon You, and the power of the Most High will overshadow You. Therefore the Holy One who is born will be called the Son of God" (Lk 1:35).

Since His origin was extraordinary and divine, naturally the Spirit also marveled, saying, "Who shall declare His generation?" (Isa 53:8).

There are four distinctive names of divinity which are more fitting than others when speaking of the Spirit: lordship, divinity, sonship, and eternal kingdom. See, then, whether He was not deemed worthy to receive these virtues and this glory.

First, see that He is Lord. "The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at My right hand" (Ps 109:1). Do you see that He is Lord from the Lord?

See also that He is His Son. "He shall cry to Me, You are my Father. And I will make Him My firstborn" (Ps 88:27-28). And again, "You are My Son. Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance" (Ps 2:7-8).

Do you see that He is the firstborn and only-begotten Son?

See also that He is God. "Tall men shall come over to You and shall be Yours. They shall follow after You. In chains they shall come and bow down before You, and they shall make supplication to You, saying: God is only in You, and there is no other God. Truly You are a hidden God" (Isa 45:14-15).

Have you seen that He is God?

See also that He is the eternal King. "Your throne, O God, is forever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your Kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions" (Ps 44:7-8).

Have you seen that He is King?

See that, being King, He is also the Lord of hosts. "Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall enter. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory" (Ps 23:7-8, 10).

Do you see that, being King, He is also the Lord of hosts?

From what follows you will see that He was also the eternal High Priest. "The Lord has sworn and will not repent: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek" (Ps 109:4).

Therefore, if He is Lord, God, Son, King, Lord of hosts, and eternal High Priest, then when He wills, He is also man. Who will know Him? Undoubtedly, in appearance He is man, but before the ages He is God.

So that, in human opinion, He would not seem a chance phantom without origin, or a spirit appearing on earth, listen that He was also an infant.

"Hear then, O house of David! Is it not enough for you to weary men, that you also weary my God? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel" (Isa 7:13-14).

"For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given. The government shall be upon His shoulders, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Father of the age to come, Prince of peace" (Isa 9:5-6).

Undoubtedly, this great Jesus came to us as God and man. No one should doubt it. The Lordly was contained in a human body.

Likewise Adam received the first mystical breath of the Father on earth while he was dust, because the divine Spirit suffers no harm when, by God's will, He is joined to a body.

And if the first dust contains the holy Spirit, then an ensouled body contains the immortal life of Christ.

Therefore, if the Spirit had merely come into one enslaved to sin and death, the great manifestation of the body would have been superfluous, unless both sin and death had been conquered.

But sin too had to be destroyed. Therefore He "committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth" (1 Pet 2:22).

Therefore He first clothed Himself in this poor and mortal body, as the Spirit says of Him: "He has no form or majesty. We saw Him, and He had no form that we should desire Him. He was despised and diminished before men" (Isa 53:2-3).

"In the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh" (Rom 8:3), showing that the healthy do not need a physician, but the sick.

He treated our infirm bodies, and especially healed diseases by mighty power, so that what was spoken might be fulfilled: "I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness. I will hold Your hand and preserve You, and I will give You as a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring prisoners out of confinement, and those who sit in darkness out of prison. I am the Lord. This is My name" (Isa 42:6-8).

"Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see. To those sitting in the land and shadow of death, light has dawned. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute shall sing" (Isa 42:18; Mt 4:16; Isa 35:6).

After evil had been destroyed part by part, death, the last enemy, is overthrown. "O death, where is your sting?" (Hos 13:14).

Such was the Passover which Jesus willed to offer for us. By suffering He freed us from sufferings, by death He conquered death, and through visible food He granted His immortal life.

Behold the saving desire of Jesus!

“For our Pascha, Christ, was sacrificed for us.” Having mentioned the unleavened breads used as food at Pascha, and having explained allegorically what the unleavened breads signify, namely a life without participation in evil, he now explains Pascha itself allegorically.

He says that our Pascha is Christ, sacrificed for us. Therefore we must care for unleavened breads, that is, for a life pure from every evil.

For when we observe the new Pascha, we do not follow the old life. Therefore Pascha is a sacrifice, and not the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, as some think.

First comes the sacrifice, and only then is passage from the old life into the new possible. First comes the example of the Savior, and only then the symbol of salvation.

They shall eat the flesh that very night, roasted with fire. With unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but eat it roasted with fire, its head with its legs and inner parts.

You shall leave none of it until morning, and you shall not break its bones. Whatever remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. And thus you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staffs in your hands.

You shall eat it in haste,” Ex 12:7-11. Here it is further added: “And thus you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staffs in your hands, and you shall eat it in haste.”

All this gives us great instruction, if it is illumined by mystical interpretation.

“Put away,” he says, “the evil man from among yourselves,” 1 Cor 5:13. “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” 1 Cor 5:6.

Vice, like a destructive disease, begins from one person and passes to the rest. Therefore it is said: “Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump,” 1 Cor 5:7.

Be a new lump in Christ, new and sinless like Christ. For Christ Himself is the new man, Adam, and through Him you are unleavened, that is, without participation in sin, through Baptism and chrism.

“For our Pascha, Christ, was sacrificed for us,” 1 Cor 5:7, having led us out of the Egypt of sin. This is Paul’s thought and word. Be guided by them, reject and remove the leaven of sin from yourself, and be wholly without part in it.

St. John Chrysostom says: “As before the face of the paschal lamb among the Israelites nothing leavened remained in any house, so also among us, before the Face of our Paschal Lamb, Christ the Lord, nothing sinful or passionate should remain.

Unleavenedness means that the believer must be free from every sin.”

The Apostle requires that the community cast him out of itself and no longer tolerate his presence. Therefore “he did not say, ‘be cleansing,’ but, ‘cleanse out.’ Cleanse thoroughly, so that neither remnant nor shadow of him may remain.

By this likeness he very strikingly cuts off the incestuous man from the Church. He says that the man not only brings no benefit by his presence, but also causes harm by infecting the whole body.

For when corruption is hidden within and it is not seen where the stench comes from, then it is attributed to the whole body. Therefore the Apostle urges them with special force to cleanse out this leaven.

And see his wisdom. In this first epistle he does not give the incestuous man hope of return. Instead, he commands him to spend his whole life in repentance.

He does this so that, by promising forgiveness, he may not make him more negligent. He does not say: deliver him to Satan so that, after repentance, he may again be received into the Church.

But what does he say? ‘That he may be saved on the last day.’ He points to that time in order to make him diligent. What he intended to grant him after repentance, he does not disclose, imitating his Lord.

As God said, ‘Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown’ (Jon 3:4), and did not add, ‘but if it repents, it shall be saved,’ so Paul also did not say: if he repents properly, we shall strongly love him.

Instead, he leaves him to do this work himself, so that then he may also receive grace. If he had said this at the very beginning, he would have driven away fear from him.

Therefore he not only does not say it, but by the likeness of leaven he does not even leave him hope of return. He cuts him off until the coming day.

But when he repented, Paul again brings him into communion with the Church with all readiness” (Chrysostom).

“That you may be a new lump.” Here the meaning passes to the common purity of all. It means such purity that there be not a single sinner among them, and such purity that there be not a single sin in any soul among them.

The new lump is dough just kneaded for unleavened loaves, where there is only pure water and unmixed flour. Such should be the whole Christian community and every Christian soul.

A newly converted soul and a newly formed Church are always like this. The Corinthian Church also had been such. But now a sinner had entered in, and had made it old or leavened it.

The Apostle says: throw out this old leaven, so that you may again become a new and pure lump, as you were in the beginning. The words “as you are unleavened” do not signify their present blamelessness.

For they had already obviously been leavened. Rather, they express their obligation to be unleavened, that is, pure from every sin and passion.

“Chrysostom says: the expression ‘as you are unleavened’ does not mean that they were all pure, but that they all ought to be such.”

As the foundation for why they, and we generally, must be such, the Apostle sets this: “For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us.”

As in Israel no leavened thing remained in any house before the face of the paschal lamb, so among us nothing sinful or passionate should remain before the face of our Paschal Lamb, Christ the Lord.

And this must be unceasing. Thus sinlessness and dispassion are our normal state. Among the Israelites, leaven was destroyed only for seven days.

It is not so with us. Since our Lamb is always present as slain, we must be without the leaven of the passions at all times.

Suppose that among Israel the lamb always stood on the table. Then no one among them would have dared to bring any leavened thing into the house.

In the Church, the house of God, the Lamb of God always lies before us as slain. He is common to the whole Church and to every believer.

Therefore let no one dare bring anything sinful into the house of his soul, or, by revealing it in deeds, into the house of the Church of God.

Such is the calling of Christians, and such is their inescapable obligation. This is what Saint Paul expresses in the words: “as you are unleavened.”

“Unleavenedness means that the believer must be free from every vice. As a Jew perishes if old leaven is found with him, so it will be with us if vice is found in us.

For if such punishment befalls those who walk in the shadow of the Law, much greater punishment cannot fail to befall us. If they cleanse their houses of leaven so carefully that they inspect even mouse holes, then all the more must we examine our soul, so as to cast out every impure thought” (Chrysostom).