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1st Corinthians 5.6-end
March 25th 2018
Milk
So after giving the believers at Corinth directions on how to deal with the Son who was immoral with his fathers wife, Paul says at verse 5 (let’s read) – through to the end of the chapter – its pretty short.
1st Corinthians 5:6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
So . . . back to the topic at hand referred to at verse 6.
The church there had ignored, overlooked or even relished in the unseemly behaviors of a son who was in sexual relations with his father’s wife – perhaps they were rejoicing in hyper-grace mentalities and simply did not think that his behaviors were an issue.
Whatever it was, Paul says at verse 6:
6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
The Greek translated glorying here is KOW KHAY MA and it means boasting, either in a positive sense or a negative.
Your boasting (whether they were boasting in Christ’s grace and their purity because of it or the actions of this son) is not good and he gives us the reason, saying:
“Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?”
As mentioned last week, this is a proverbial statement by Paul one well understood in that day and age and then all the way out to today.
The meaning is a little corruption will corrupt the whole thing.
Who would want to eat an apple that is 99% pure and 1% poison. Who would want a spouse who is 99% good and 1% flat black evil? Who would want to travel on a plane that was working 99% of the time?
The use of leaven was strictly forbidden in all offerings made to the Lord by fire.
Leviticus 2:11
“No meat offering, which ye shall bring unto the LORD, shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the LORD made by fire.”
Exodus 23:18 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning.
Leviticus 6:16 And the remainder thereof shall Aaron and his sons eat: with unleavened bread shall it be eaten in the holy place; in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation they shall eat it.
17 It shall not be baken with leaven. I have given it unto them for their portion of my offerings made by fire; it is most holy, as is the sin offering, and as the trespass offering.
The Hebrews had a couple words relating to leaven or yeast. First was “seor” which was the remnant of dough taken from an earlier batch which had fermented and become acid.
This is referred to in Exodus 12:15 in the Lord God’s establishment of the Passover where He says through Moses:
Exodus 12:15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
Why the focus on removing all leaven from both sacrificial offerings and from all the home of the Jews during Passover?
The second Hebrew term translated leaven or fermented in the Old Testament is “hamets” and that speaks to the actual process of “fermentation.”
In Numbers 6:3 “vinegar of wine” is more correctly “fermented wine.”
In Exodus 13:7 in the King James we read:
“Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters.”
But the best translated way to read that might be:
“Unfermented things [Heb matstsoth] shall be consumed during the seven days; and there shall not be seen with thee fermented things [hamets], and there shall not be seen with thee leavened mass [seor] in all thy borders.”
In other words, in that material economy, God was really big on using leaven as a symbol for
Corruption and Sin – especially the sin of pride, which IS the Human sin –
And the lack of matstsoth, hamets and seor as a picture of sincerity, humility, and purity.
Now, remember, under the Law, these material types were pictures of what God sought in the heart of all people – but until Jesus came and cleansed the human heart from the inside, this state was not really possible and so among the Nation of Israel God used leaven to illustrate and picture what He really sought from human beings – authenticity from the heart – without any leaven (or any insincerity, pollution, feigning, arrogance or pride).
As Michelle mentioned last week, when we think of the physical properties of yeast (or leaven) and what it does when introduced to a mixture of flour and water, we see its application to the heart and mind of an individual.
Yeast makes dough RISE. (or as Paul puts it, puffs people up).
Scripture calls for followers of Our King to be the opposite in this world – low and lowly.
The first three chapters of 1st Corinthians – especially chapter 1 – were all about his.
Roman 12:16 Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.
James 1:9, a relative of our Lord, said:
“Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:”
KING David, the Psalmist said in Psalm 131:1
“LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.”
Isaiah 5:21 says:
“Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!”
Of course, Our Lord and King, God with us, able to call down ten thousand legions of angels, walk on water and multiply material things, said of Himself:
Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
The Word Jesus uses here that is translated to “lowly in heart” is TAP I NOS –
“depressed,(figuratively) humiliated (in circumstances or disposition):–base, cast down, humble, of low degree (estate), lowly.”
Quoting Proverbs 3:34, James says:
“God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” The Lowly in heart. The base, the cast down.
Yeast or leaven, of course, does the opposite to flour and water – it makes it rise, full of air and puffed up.
Yeast cells thrive on simple sugars. As the sugars are metabolized by the yeast, carbon dioxide and alcohol are released into the bread dough, making it rise.
And so it is with leaven of the heart and mind in man. It takes the state of our genuine selves before God and Man – lowly pasty flour and water, and puffs it up, filling our actual person with air and hollowness.
God wants unleavened followers – like His Son.
When Our Lord walked the earth He gave some direct advice on how to handle the presence of leaven in or around us, saying flatly:
Luke 14:11 For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Proverbs 29:23 reads “A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit.”
Of course, we have the ultimate example of the leavened and the unleavened heart from Jesus teachings when he said the following in Luke 18 beginning at verse 9 :
9 And he spake this parable unto (WHO?) certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
(One upon whom everyone looked to for their holiness and another whom the masses pretty much despised).
11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
And Jesus, full of God, says:
14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
The crime of the believers at Corinth, as we pointed out last week is that they allowed themselves to become puffed up – and it affected the way they lived and approached the faith in that day.
Jesus plainly taught and exemplified the reality that God wants human beings to be humble, which occurs in and through a few things so far as I can tell.
First, to avoid leaven of every type, that would cause us to become puffed up before God, but Jesus seems to speak especially of leaven that puffed up religious men.
In Matthew 16:6 we read:
Then Jesus said unto them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.”
In addition to watching and being cognizantly aware of they leaven that puffs up those who apparently represent God, we also are given a few other insights to dealing with our pride.
Jesus said in Matthew 18:4
Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Then again to James, who said:
“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”
Over the course of ministry, when I have the frequent occasion to meet someone who either does not understand the need to believe in God, or who thinks God is unfair, or who has sort of puffed themselves up so high they see their wisdom on par with God, or even those who can’t seem to be “born-again” all of these conditions tend to point to someone who has an improper view of God –
Meaning, they see Him lower than themselves, or the see Him equal to themselves – and they really all together miss His might, power, majesty, glory, and holiness.
A disconnect between who they REALLY are as a human being and who He REALLY is as God.
In this realm I do have great respect for the Calvinist views because they really, truly seem to comprehend His majesty and holiness – and they worship Him accordingly.
The trouble is they take the fact of His power and sovereignty and apply it to an indifference to His creations – which I think is a mistake.
Nevertheless, if or when we might find ourselves getting puffed up or when we might find ourselves having difficulty humbling ourselves – focus on who He really, truly is (relative to all the things that surround us) and then place by placing ourselves before Him, humility and brokenness is typically the result.
A final note on this idea of being puffed up or humble. The idea is NOT that God seeks to keep all of His creations in a flat state of being flour and water.
Not in the least. He wants to fill us with spirit too. And in inflate and inspire us to live as His Son. But His presence in the flesh will not putrefy the soul but enlighten without puffing us up.
Peter sort of hits it on the head when he writes:
1st Peter 5:6 “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.”
Hence Jesus and others reiterating the fact that those who humble themselves WILL be exalted, by, as Peter says, “by the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.”
Okay, so remembering the time stamp of this situation in Corinth and the need for Paul to keep the body of Believers pure in that day and age in preparation for the day of the Lord, he has given them a lesson about the need to keep the whole loaf unleavened.
And speaking to the sins of this one man he says, “A little leaven has the ability to pervade the whole mass.”
And his apostolic advice to them:
7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
This advice is derived from the custom of the Jews in putting away leaven at the celebration of the passover.
Obviously here, by “the old leaven” he means vice and sin – so put our the person who had committed the sin in their church.
Remove it from your house so that there is no chance of the body being corrupted.
His brethren the Jews, at the celebration of the passover, gave a tremendous amount of diligence to removing all leaven from their houses by searching every part of their homes with candles as a means to remove every particle of leavened bread from their habitations and this was the diligence Paul was suggesting to them there in the Church at Corinth.
Why do this? He says, “That ye may be a new lump.”
That you may be like a new mass of flour, or dough, before the leaven is put into it – pure and free from the corrupting principles of man, sin, philosophies, pride – this was the Bride Jesus was coming back to save.
He tells them that they are able to do this because in Christ they are “unleavened.”
Meaning, by Him and His blood and your looking to Him in faith you are pure.
Therefore, remove all external impurities around you that run the risk of putrefying the church there.
This advice does not seem to only refer to the sinful Son but to all leaven that threatened the purity they had in Christ.
And he adds, “For even Christ is our Passover who is sacrificed for us.”
Just as the Jews, when their paschal lamb was slain, gave great diligence to put away all leaven from their dwellings, so Christians, whose passover was also slain and his blood dripped over us, ought to give the like diligence to remove all that is impure and corrupting from our hearts.
This passage is evidence that Paul meant to teach that Christ had taken the place of the paschal lamb–that that lamb was designed to typify him—a concept repeatedly proved throughout the New Testament.
Where Paul the Apostle, given to that age by Christ to lead His bride through tremendous trials to the end, speaks to the church there as being new lump of dough, one that is lacking leaven entirely, which was vital to it being His bride in the day of the Lord, I suggest that the principles continue to apply to individuals today.
In other words, the advice here to the Church Bride is advice we all individually assume to ourselves as Christians who too have Christ as our Passover.
Therefore, by and through humbling ourselves, and removing the leaven from our lives that works to puff us up, we too are like the Jews of old, lighting candles (shining His light) into our hearts and minds and ridding from our souls anything and everything that has the ability to make us proud.
In the faith we call this process, sanctification.
Paul wrote to the 1st Thessalonians 1:5:23
“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Our justification is the wiping away of sin once and for all by and through the application of the blood of Christ by faith.
Having been justified by our Passover, as a new lump, the call is to then humble ourselves which in some ways occurs by lighting a candle and searching our souls for the things that are leaven to our will and ways.
Paul says in verse 8
8 Therefore let us keep the feast (of Passover), not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
By the way, if you are a biblical literalist, then Paul MUST be saying Christians should keep the Passover, right? Not so.
It does not mean literally the paschal supper here–for that had ceased to be observed by Christians as all Holy Days and Sabbaths had ended.
But the sense is, “Let us engage in the service of God by putting away all evil.”
And he provides a couple types of evil specifically – the first is the “leaven of malice.” And the second is “the leaven of wickness“ . . .of all unkindness and evil.
And then adds, “But with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
We have talked a bit about the properties of leaven here.
In opposition to the puffed up-ness such produces in the lives and hearts of Man, Paul tells us that the Christian should “keep the feast (of Christ) with sincerity and truth.
Why these terms?
The word sincerity is so appropriate here as it literally came from a phrase, “without wax” sin-ceros.
Apparently, potters would sell their wares in the public marts and sometimes would pass faulty vessels on to the unsuspecting crowds by filling their cracks with wax.
The pot would go home with the owner and in time the wax would weaken and the pot would become leaky.
To show the integrity of their wares some sellers would put up signs – sine-seros – meaning, “our pots are without wax – they are authentic, and in the case of our discussion today we might add to the description, “without puffiness, holes, ari or putrefaction.”
True Christian humility would naturally be without wax.
Paul adds, “and truth.”
Another great term which stands in opposition to leaven. See, if and when people are standing in truth and the reality of who they are relative to God and others, humility – not pride – is the only posture that could possibly be taken.
I mean, how can any created human being, thriving in the fall, ever look up and around at God, and be puffed up?
The truth of things, when it is present, will ALWAYS slay the human being before God.
So sincerity and truth are perfect terms that Paul uses to describe how we “keep the Passover of Christ” in our lives.
Alright, at verse 9 Paul branches off this subject area and says:
9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
Now, a large number of commentators–as Chrysostom, Theodoret, Oecumenius, most of the Latin commentators, and nearly all the Dutch commentators—believe that Paul is talking about this same epistle in hand and that what Paul is saying is that “in the former part of this epistle he had given them this direction.”
Others–as Grotius, Doddridge, Rosenmuller, etc.—believe that it refers to some other epistle which is now lost, and which had been sent to them before their messengers had reached him.
This epistle might have been very brief, and might have contained little more than this direction.
This seems to be the case for the following reasons:
It seems to be the natural and obvious interpretation.
It is the very expression which he uses in 2nd Corinthians 7:8, where he is referring to this epistle as one which he had sent to them.
In reality, Paul hasn’t (in any former part of this epistle) said this. He had commanded them to remove an incestuous person, and such a command might seem to imply that they ought not to keep company with such a person but this was not a specific command to not have company with them.
It is highly probable that Paul would have written more letters than we have preserved. We have fourteen but he was in labors for God for many many years, founded a number of churches, and had lots to manage.
We know that a number of books have been lost which were either inspired or which were regarded as of authority by inspired men. Some of them include the books of Jasher, of Iddo the seer, and more which are referred to in the Old Testament. I would suggest that the same is true here of letters written in the New Testament era.
Also, in 1st Corinthians 5:11, he expressly makes a distinction between the epistle which he was then writing and the former one, saying, “But now,” (i.e., in this epistle, “I have written egraqa to you,” etc., an expression which he would not use if 1Co 5:9 referred to the same epistle).
And what did he write to them in another epistle?
“To not company with fornicators.”
This seems to be a general bit of advice to them formerly and applied to all fornicators.
It’s reasonable wisdom. If you hang with people who fornicate for long periods of time you run the risk of fornicating, just like if you hang out with tennis players you will wind up playing tennis.
But Paul now giving more specific instructions relative to this advice given and says something that is tough in the King James
10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
Perhaps a better way to say this is:
“Of course I’m not referring to the men of the world who are in immoral, or who are covetous and grasping, or who worship idols; to not keep company with them you would have to leave the world altogether.”
What he is doing is putting the advice he had given them in the earlier epistle some context and then he adds:
11 But now I have written (another indicator that he had written to them before) But NOW I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
In other words he says don’t associate with any man that is called a brother who is a
Fornicator
Covetous
An idolater
A railer
Or a drunkard
An extortioner
And he adds:
“With such an one no not to eat.”
Now, remember the plan and purpose of that day and the Holiness of His bride. The question then remains, as readers of the Bible today, “does the advice stand?”
To answer it let’s discuss quickly each of these terms from the Greek:
Fornicator (Pornos)
from the root word, pernemi (to sell)
So a prostitute, someone that is a whoremonger.
Covetous (play-on-ek-tace)
“holding (desiring) more, i.e. eager for gain, a defrauder)
Extortioners (harpax)
“Ravening extortioners”
An idolater (i-do-lol-at-race)
“Image worshipper” (think about that one for a while in our world)
A railer (loy-dor-os)
“Abusive reviler, who wounds the feelings of others”
Or a drunkard (Meth-oo-sos)
“Tipsy, drunk”
Now, think about this for a minute. You are a Christian who has come to know
God through Christ. You understand your sin nature and His goodness and love toward you. You are the home of the Holy Spirit.
Do you really think that you would be comfortable hanging out with the above on a basis that would influence you and corrupt your faith?
Perhaps, in the long extended haul, and perhaps if you had a problem with the same things.
But I do not think this advice has a reasonable application to our day and age LIKE IT DID then – this is just another example of my point.
Returning to non-Christians and their status before God, Paul adds at verse 12
12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
I have no authority over them who are outside of the body so I can exercise no jurisdiction over them.
All my rules, Paul seems to be saying, have reference only to those who are within the church.
Having set the tone for the subject of his judging the outside world, he then says to them:
“Is not your jurisdiction as Christians confined to those who are within the church, and professed members of it?
IOW, shouldn’t you exercise discipline there, and inflict punishment on its unworthy members?
If you don’t, you should.
And then referring to the world outside the faith Paul says:
13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
They who are unconnected with the church are under the direct and peculiar government of God.
They are, indeed sinners, and they deserve punishment for their crimes. But it is not ours to pronounce sentence upon them, or to inflict punishment on them.
God will do that. Our province is in regard to the church – His bride. We are to judge these; and these alone.
All others we are to leave entirely in the hands of God.
Therefore. (this is in the Greek “and”) “And since it is yours to judge the members of your own society, do you exercise discipline on the offender, and put him away?”
In chapter 6 Paul will continue on with this principle about the Saints and judgement within the body in that day.
Let’s stop here.
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