Unleavened bread

1 Corinthians 5: 6-8

6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

In this verse Paul points out to us that leaven permeates the whole lump of dough. In this context it refers to sin.  Once mankind allowed sin into our lives and hearts, it permeated our whole beings.  But Christ, Who is our Passover Lamb, was sacrificed for us - in our place - therefore we can also rise with Him into a new being and into a new life.  The feast Paul refers to here is the feast of unleavened bread which is also celebrated at the time of Passover.  It symbolizes the fact that Christ was without sin - yet became sin for us and it encourages us to not bring any of the old leaven, meaning to bring nothing of our old lives, into our new life with Him.  Paul wants us not just to be aware of the fact that our sin has been dealt with, but he also wants us to know that we can celebrate Christ with immense joy!  He reminds us that we have been purged of the leaven of malice and wickedness and that the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth now is our inheritance.

Point to ponder:

What leaven from my old life am I trying to carry into the new life with Christ?  Leave it all behind and rise to a new life with Christ.  

Come to the Well - Casting Crowns