1 Corinthians 5:8Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

What profit is there for me from a bright day, when my soul is darkened by the reproaches of conscience?

So that you may be persuaded that we can keep feast continually, that there is no fixed time for this, and that we are not bound by dependence on time, hear what Paul says: “Therefore let us keep the feast,” 1 Cor 5:8.

When he wrote this, there was no feast, neither Pascha, nor Theophany, nor Pentecost. He wishes to show that time does not constitute a feast, but a pure conscience.

A feast is nothing other than joy. Spiritual and rational joy is produced by nothing other than the consciousness of good deeds. Therefore, whoever has a good conscience and deeds like it can keep feast continually.

Thus, wishing to show this very thing, Paul said: “Therefore let us keep 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.

Do you see how he does not bind you to dependence on times, but exhorts you to have a pure conscience?

“Therefore let us keep the feast,” it is said, “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.

There is no longer any need to stand by the ark and the golden altar for those who have within themselves the Master of all and enter into communion with Him in every way.

They do so by prayer, offerings, writings, almsgiving, and bearing Him within themselves. Therefore what need has one for the Sabbath who always keeps feast and lives in heaven?

Let us then keep feast unceasingly, having withdrawn from every evil. In this consists the true feast. Let us hasten toward spiritual things, leaving earthly things behind, and keep feast with a spiritual celebration.

Let us restrain our hands from covetousness and free the body from excessive and useless labors, by which the Hebrew people were once burdened in Egypt.

In acquiring gold, we differ in nothing from those who dug clay, made bricks, gathered straw, and were tormented. Even now the devil compels men to make bricks, as Pharaoh once did.

Indeed, what is gold if not mud? And what is silver if not straw? Like straw, it kindles the fire of desire, and gold, like clay, defiles the one who possesses it.

“Therefore let us keep 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 5:7-8. So also Christ calls His teaching leaven, Mt 13:33.

Or, in the word “truth” you may understand a contrast to the Old Testament figures, which were not the truth. For it is required that a Christian be above the Old Testament figures.

Or again, by “sincerity” you may understand purity in action, and by “truth” correctness in contemplation.

“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.”

Perhaps it will be the very money denied to the poor. Is this not what the Prophet calls the shaming of joy? “The sons of men have shamed joy,” he says, Joel 1:12.

I counsel and entreat you: do not shame afterward the joy reverently honored at the beginning. Is it fitting to turn into play and amusement such joy, which was acquired for us by sacrifice and suffering?

“Our Pascha, Christ, was sacrificed for us. Therefore,” the Apostle concludes, “let us keep 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 5:7-8.

“As in the day, let us walk becomingly, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lechery and wantonness, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” Rom 13:13-14.

In Him there is enough light and incorruptible joy for all and for each. No one needs, apart from Him, to chase an illusory brilliance, nor should an immortal soul seek its food in corruption.

Seek joy always in its true source. “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I will say, rejoice,” Phil 4:4. Amen.

The old leaven is our sinfulness: egoism, or selfhood, with passions of soul and body. The leaven of malice and wickedness signifies the same thing.

By contrast, sincerity and truth signify the rejection of everything sinful and passionate, and progress in everything opposed to it, namely in every virtue and every act pleasing to God.

There is no need to define with precision what malice and wickedness are, or what sincerity and truth are. By the first, the Apostle wished to signify everything evil and opposed to God. By the second, everything holy and pleasing to God.

His thought is this: the Christian’s life, from beginning to end, must be sinless, pure, and radiant. St. Chrysostom also dwells on another feature of the feast, joy, and says:

“The Apostle said, ‘Let us keep the feast,’ not because it was then Pascha or Pentecost, but to show that for Christians every time is a time of feast, because of the abundance of blessings granted to them.

For what blessing is lacking? For you 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 troubles. For us every time is a time of feast. Therefore Paul also says: ‘Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I will say, rejoice,’ Phil 4:4.

During feasts no one dresses in filthy garments. Let us act this way as well, for a wedding is being celebrated, a spiritual wedding.

‘The Kingdom of Heaven is like a king,’ says the Lord, ‘who made a wedding for his son,’ Mt 22:2. And when a king celebrates a wedding, and the wedding of his son, what can be greater than such a feast?

Therefore let no one enter clothed in rags. We are speaking not of garments, but of impure deeds. One man who was found at the wedding in an unclean garment was cast out with dishonor.

See, then, what diligence and purity are required from those entering this wedding.”