1 Corinthians 5:8 – Sincerity and truth

 … so that we may be keeping the festival, not with old leaven, nor yet with the leaven of evil and wickedness, but with unleavened sincerity and truth.

What Paul is aiming at, is that we, as believers, would celebrate the feast of the unleavened. Of him who was resurrected in incorruptibility, as the Firstfruits, in newness of life. Total out of the reach of decay. That is what we are in him, unleavened (:7): not just unspoiled but even incorruptible! Note: that is not an assignment but a festive realization!

The idea about this chapter is usually that the leaven would refer to the man who lived with his father’s wife. But that is a misunderstanding. The leaven is the insincerity of the Corinthians who did not want to face the truth. Paul does not make any ethical statement whether the man was wrong. Because that is not even up for discussion.

The Corinthians would sincerely recognize the truth. The truth that the festival of the unleavened has arrived. “The old has passed, see the new has come!” The question is: do they and we celebrate that festival too? Or do we let it get spoiled by acid and by what is from yesterday?

Delen: