1 Corinthians 5:7

In Jewish life it was customary to throw away all the leaven (yeast) in the house when the family prepared for the Passover celebration (Exodus 12:15; Exodus 13:6-7). They did this so the bread they made for Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread that followed would be completely free of leaven. This may have been for hygienic reasons as well as because of the symbolism of the act. This is what the Corinthians needed to do as a church so they could worship God acceptably. In one sense they were already free of leaven; their trust in Christ had removed their sins. However in another sense they possessed leaven since they had tolerated sin in their midst. Paul described the same situation earlier in this epistle when he said the Corinthians were saints (1 Corinthians 1:2) even though they were not behaving as saints. God had sanctified them in their position, but they were in need of progressive sanctification. They needed to become what they were. This was Paul’s basic exhortation.

"1 Corinthians emphasizes that the gospel issues in transformed lives, that salvation in Christ is not complete without God/Christlike attitudes and behavior.

"The classic expression of Paul’s understanding of the relationship between gospel and ethics (indicative and imperative) is to be found in 1 Corinthians 5:7.

"Ethics for Paul is ultimately a theological issue pure and simple. Everything has to do with God and with what God is about in Christ and the Spirit. Thus (1) the purpose (or basis) of Christian ethics is the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31); (2) the pattern for such ethics is Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1); (3) the principle is love, precisely because it alone reflects God’s character (1 Corinthians 8:2-3; 1 Corinthians 13:1-8); and (4) the power is the Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:11; 1 Corinthians 6:19)." [Note: Fee, "Toward a . . .," pp. 51, 53.]

The mention of the removal of leaven before the Passover led Paul to develop his analogy further. Christ, the final Passover Lamb, had already died. A type is a divinely intended illustration of something else, the antitype. A type may be a person (cf. Romans 5:14), a thing (cf. Hebrews 10:19-20), an event (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:11), a ceremony, as here, or an institution (cf. Hebrews 9:11-12). Therefore it was all the more important that the believers clean out the remaining leaven immediately.