Albert Barnes Commentary 1 Corinthians 5:7

"Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, even as ye are unleavened. For our passover also hath been sacrificed, [even] Christ:" — 1 Corinthians 5:7 (ASV)

Purge out therefore the old leaven... Put away; free yourselves from.

The old leaven. The apostle here takes the opportunity, from the mention of leaven, to exhort the Corinthians to put away vice and sin. The figure is derived from the custom of the Jews in putting away leaven at the celebration of the Passover.

By "the old leaven," he means vice and sin, and also, in this context, the person who had committed the sin in their church. Just as the Jews, during the celebration of the Passover, were very diligent in removing leaven from their houses—searching every part of their dwellings with candles to remove every particle of leavened bread from their homes—so the apostle exhorts them to use all diligence to search out and remove all sin.

That you may be a new lump. That you may be like a new mass of flour, or dough, before the leaven is put into it. That you may be pure and free from the corrupting principle.

As you are unleavened. This means, as you are bound by your Christian profession to be unleavened, or to be pure. Your very profession implies this, and you ought, therefore, to remove all impurity and to become holy. Let there be no impurity and no mixture inconsistent with that holiness which the gospel teaches and requires.

The apostle here does not refer merely to the case of the incestuous person, but he takes the opportunity to exhort them to put away all sin. Not only are they to remove this occasion of offense, but also to remove all impurity, so that they might become entirely and only holy.

The doctrine is that Christians are by their profession holy, and therefore they ought to be very diligent to remove everything that is impure.

For even Christ our passover... As the Jews, when their paschal lamb was slain, were very diligent to put away all leaven from their homes, so we Christians, since our Passover is slain, ought to be similarly diligent to remove all that is impure and corrupting from our hearts.

There can be no doubt here that the paschal lamb was a type of the Messiah. It is equally clear that the leaven was understood to be emblematic of impurity and sin, and that their being required to put it away was intended to be an emblematic action designed to signify that all sin was to be removed and forsaken.

Our passover. Our paschal lamb, for so the word pasca usually signifies. The meaning is: "We Christians have a paschal lamb, and that lamb is the Messiah. And as the Jews, when their paschal lamb was slain, were required to put away all leaven from their homes, so we, when our paschal lamb is slain, should put away all sin from our hearts and from our churches."

This passage proves that Paul meant to teach that Christ had taken the place of the paschal lamb—that that lamb was designed to adumbrate or typify Him—and that consequently when He was offered, the paschal offering was designed to cease.

Christ is often in the Scriptures compared to a lamb (John 1:29; 1 Peter 1:19; Revelation 5:6, 12).

Is sacrificed for us. A marginal note says, 'Or slain'—etuyh. The word yuw may mean simply to slay or kill; but it is also used often in the sense of making a sacrifice as an expiation for sin (Acts 14:13, 18; 1 Corinthians 10:20).

Compare to Genesis 31:54; 46:1; Exodus 3:18; 5:3, 8, 17; 8:8, 25-29; 13:15; 20:24, where it is used as the translation of the word HEBREW, to sacrifice. It is used as the translation of this word no less than ninety-eight times in the Old Testament, and perhaps always in the sense of a sacrifice, or bloody offering.

It is also used as the translation of the Hebrew word HEBREW, and HEBREW, to slay, to kill, and so on, in Exodus 12:21; 1 Kings 11:19; 2 Chronicles 29:22, and so on; in all, in eleven places in the Old Testament. It is used in a similar sense in the New Testament, in Matthew 22:4; Luke 15:23, 27, 30; John 10:10; Acts 10:13; 11:7.

It occurs nowhere else in the New Testament except in the places that have been specified. The true meaning of the word here is, therefore, to be found in the doctrine concerning the Passover.

That it was intended to be a sacrifice for sin is proved by the nature of the offering and by the account that is everywhere given of it in the Old Testament. The paschal lamb was slain as a sacrifice. It was slain in the temple; its blood was poured out as an offering; it was sprinkled and offered by the priests in the same way as other sacrifices (34:25; 2 Chronicles 30:15, 16).

And if so, then this passage means that Christ was offered as a sacrifice for sin (this is in accordance with the numerous passages of the New Testament which speak of His death in this manner; see Barnes on Romans 3:25), and that His offering was designed to take the place of the paschal sacrifice under the old covenant.

For us. For us who are Christians. He died in our stead; and as the Jews, when celebrating their paschal feast, put away all leaven, so we, as Christians, should put away all evil from our hearts, since that sacrifice has now been made once for all.

The term "Purge" may also be understood as "Cleanse."

Regarding "Christ," compare to Isaiah 53:7; 1 Peter 1:19; Revelation 5:6, 12.

The term "sacrificed" may also be understood as "slain."