1 Corinthians 5:1-8.

“For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel” (Exodus 12:15). The Passover festival lasts a full week. Corinthian believers from Jewish backgrounds would be familiar with chametz. This is the removal of all leavening, including yeast and bread, from the household at the beginning of Passover. Only then can the festival proceed.

I remember a powerful scene from Days of Wine and Roses by J. P. Miller. It is the tragic story of a young couple destroyed by alcoholism. In one scene, the main character, Joe Clay, manages to be sober for a period, but a trauma draws him back to drinking again. In the scene, he nearly destroys a greenhouse in a frantic search for a bottle stashed there.

For the believer, the “old leaven” of our former sinful life must be removed. “Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (5:7). Let the festival begin!

Author: Duane Brush