From the subject of the factions and sectarianism in the Corinthian Church, Paul now passes to the second section of his Epistle; and here he speaks of the relationship which Christians should hold with the heathen population around them. The transition is easy. Paul had thought it advisable to send Timothy to the Church in Corinth; for he perfectly understood the Apostle’s mind, and could represent his views more fully than a written letter. But now it occurred to the Apostle that this might be misconstrued by some of the popular leaders in the church as a timorous reluctance on his part to appear in Corinth, and as a sign that they were no longer to be held in check by his strong hand. So he assures them that he himself will indeed come to Corinth. And he also mentions that the leaders of the Church there have little reason to be puffed up, in light of the fact that they have allowed in their own midst an immorality so gross that even the lower standards of pagan ethics regarded it as an unspeakable abomination! Instead of being puffed up, Paul tells them that they should be ashamed, and that they should immediately take steps to put away from them such a great scandal. If they would not do so, then he would be forced to come to them with a rod of correction.
Paul urges and illustrates the necessity of the Church being a society with no leaven of wickedness among them. Says he, “Even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us purge out the old leaven.” Of course, the allusion was much more easily understood by the Jews; but still, if we call to mind the outstanding ideas of the Passover, we cannot fail to feel the force of the admonition. The simplest explanation of the Passover, which Jewish parents were enjoined to give to their children, is found in these words: “By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of bondage. And it came to pass when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the Lord slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, with the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the firstborn being males, but all the firstborn of my children I redeem.” The whole transaction of the night of the first Passover stood thus: God claimed the Israelites as His people, but the Egyptians also claimed them as theirs. And since no warning would persuade the Egyptians to let them go away to serve Jehovah, He at last forcibly delivered them – slaying the firstborn of the Egyptian people, and crippling and dismaying them, in order to give Israel an opportunity of escape. Being thus rescued so that they might be God’s people, they felt bound to continue to acknowledge this; and in accordance with the customs of their time, they expressed their sense of it by sacrificing their Passover lamb. By this outward sacrificial act which was engaged in by every family, it was acknowledged that the whole nation belonged to the Lord.
Christ, then, is our Passover Lamb Who was sacrificed for us; for through Him, the acknowledgment is made that we belong to God. He is truly the best representative of our human race. He is the One Who can make – on behalf of ourselves the acknowledgment that we are God’s people. And He does so by perfectly giving Himself up to God. This fact that we belong to God, and that we are His creatures and subjects, has never been perfectly acknowledged except by Christ. No individual or society has ever fully recognized this apparently simple truth that we are not our own, but the Lord’s. The Israelites made the acknowledgment in form, by sacrifice; but Christ alone made it in deed, by giving Himself up entirely to do His Father’s will. It is through this self-sacrifice of Christ that we can become God’s people, and enjoy all the liberties and advantages of His people.
But Paul’s main purpose in introducing the idea of the Passover is to enforce his injunction to the Corinthians to purge their lives of all defilement. “Let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness!” Leaven was judged unclean because fermentation is one form of corruption. This impurity was not to be touched by the Jews during their festival-week. During the first keeping of the Passover, the suddenness of the Exodus – when the people fled with their kneading-boards on their shoulders, and had no time to take leaven with them – obliged them to keep God’s command and eat unleavened bread. And so scrupulously did they always observe this afterwards, that before the day of the feast, they used to sweep their houses and search the dark corners with candles to ensure that not one morsel of leaven would be found among them. Thus Paul desires for all Christians to be separate from the rotting, fermenting results of the old life! So suddenly would he have us come out from it. He desires us to leave it all behind us. “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump”; therefore, we must be careful if we desire to keep this precept and be clean. Let us pray for grace to look carefully into even the unlikely corners in our hearts and lives, using the candle of the Lord to make diligent search for the tainting remnant of any corruption!
Lord, we repent of all the corruptions which our human hearts are full of, as well as of all the fleshly lusts which war against the soul and interrupt the peace and prosperity of Your Church. Amen.
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