`Leaven' zume. The English word comes from the Latin levare `to raise' and refers to that fermenting substance

which, being added to dough, causes the batch to rise. `Uncorruptness' adiaphthoria is compounded of a a negative,

dia a preposition indicating thoroughness, and phthoria from phtheiro `to corrupt'. `Sincerity' is also a compound of

a derivative of phtheiro, being a a negative, and phtharsis corruption.

The context of the first reference is that of the two related feasts; the Passover and the Unleavened Bread :

` Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our

Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of

malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth' (1 Cor. 5:7,8).

Two things here are basic, unalterable facts, and two consequences are expected by the apostle to arise as a

The two basic facts.

`Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us'.

`Ye are unleavened'.

These facts are unalterable and unconditional. They represent the believer's ground of acceptance before God.

Those however who `are' unleavened, may not always act in character, even as these Corinthian `saints' are seen by

this very chapter to have behaved in a most `unsaintly' manner. This leads us to the consequences that are expected.

The two consequences.

`Purge out therefore the old leaven'.

`Therefore let us keep the feast ` with unleavened bread'.

Leaven is used here, as elsewhere, of that which corrupts, be it doctrine (Matt. 16:6,12) or practice (Gal. 5:9) and is

explained as representing `malice and wickedness' whereas to be `unleavened' represents `sincerity and truth'.

Salvation is free, it is by grace, it is God's gift, it is not of works. The only token God looked for at the Exodus,

was `the blood'. No Israelite was delivered from Egypt's bondage by exhibiting on the door post his pedigree, or a

list of his good works, or a series of promises which he undertook to perform. He did not even exhibit a piece of

unleavened bread. The place of the `unleaven' was in the house, a corresponding answer to the shed blood without.

So, the Corinthians were `saved', and were `saints' (1 Cor. 1:2,18), they were expected to live as such. They were

unleavened in Christ, let them see to it that they were unleavened in character. Christ had `purged' their sins, let

them `purge out' the old leaven. This purging out of the leaven that corrupts finds its echo in the words : `In all

things ` a pattern: in doctrine uncorruptness ` sincerity' (Titus 2:7), and `Grace be with all them that love our Lord

Jesus Christ in sincerity (literally, incorruptibility)' (Eph. 6:24).

In the estimate of the Scriptures, `man' is corruptible, and remains so apart from resurrection (Rom. 1:23;

1 Cor. 15:53,54). `Corruption' is an attribute of the old man (Eph. 4:22). The whole of the present creation is

groaning under a bondage of corruption (Rom. 8:21), and they who sow to the flesh must expect to reap corruption

(Gal. 6:8).  `Perishing' the word so translated in Colossians 2:22, is the end of all human attempts at the

sanctification of self, and corruption is in the world through lust (2 Pet. 1:4). `Incorruption' on the other hand is the

attribute of God (1 Tim. 1:17), where the Authorised Version translates `immortal'; it is the character of the saints'

inheritance (1 Pet. 1:4), of the Word of God (1 Pet. 1:23), and of the hidden man of the heart (1 Pet. 3:4).

The love of the believer upon whom is pronounced the benediction of Ephesians 6:24 is a love that is not of the

flesh, nor of the old man, nor of the present creation, it is a love that belongs to a new creation, to the sphere of

resurrection, and partakes of the nature of God, of His Word, and of the glorious inheritance that awaits the

There is possibly an allusion to the love already spoken of in Ephesians 5:22,23, for when writing to the

Corinthians and using the figure of espousal the apostle said :