UNLEAVENED BREAD OF SINCERITY AND TRUTH

The assembly at Corinth was the sanctuary of God, 3. 16, and, as such, must reflect His holiness. A sexual sin of the worst kind had happened there; it was known about in the assembly and well beyond but no action had been taken against the brother involved. Instead, it seemed that the assembly members were supportive of a sin which even the world viewed as totally unac­ceptable, that a man ‘should have his father’s wife’. Paul gives instruction as to how the case should be dealt with in that the brother should be put away with a view, of course, to repentance and restoration to fellowship in due time. He then uses a very interesting picture which is the subject of this meditation.

He suggests in verse 7that the old leaven should be purged out; a new unleavened lump should come into existence; this based on Christ our Passover being sacrificed for us. Christ as Passover reminds us of the death of the lamb and the blood shed in Egypt on Passover night. This is a picture of the death of the Lord Jesus at Calvary and teaches the value of the assembly to God; it should be equally valuable to the saints. Leaven was often ‘made from barley mixed with water and allowed to stand till it turned sour. It was then mixed with bread flour kneaded without salt and kept until it passed into a state of fermentation’. This decaying and fermented lump was then put into the new baking and it quickly pervaded the whole. From each batch of dough a lump was kept to put into the next day’s baking to cause the bread to rise. But, as they prepared to leave Egypt, the houses of the Israelites had to be scrupulously cleaned of leaven so that the Passover bread would be a new (unleavened) lump.

So, here, the assembly needed to be cleansed of all sin, what­ever it might be; observe the list in verse 11. Otherwise they would be in the bizarre position of keeping the feast, not the Lord’s Supper but the Christian life and its blessings, while leaven was still ‘in the house’. The life of the Christian should be characterized by the presence of the unleavened bread of sincerity (in thought) and truth (in action). Malice and wicked­ness, sins of the old life, should not be tolerated but expelled. So would the assembly again reflect the holiness of God.