Lessons #153 and 154
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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Specific case of sexual immorality in Corinth (1 Cor 5:1-8)
... 6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
We stated in our last study that Apostle Paul’s concern that sin ignored has a way of infiltrating the church of Christ and so pollutes the community of believers, led to two instructions in the section of 1 Corinthians 5 that we are considering, specifically in verses 7 and 8. The first instruction is for the Corinthians to remove urgently from their midst the specific sin of sexual immorality and by implication to remove the incestuous believer quickly or urgently. It is this that the apostle instructs figuratively in the first expression of 1 Corinthians 5:7 Get rid of the old yeast that we considered in the last study. Furthermore, we indicate that the result of the Corinthians obeying the instruction of getting rid of the sin of sexual immorality among them by removing the incestuous believers is, so they maintain their superior spiritual status without the influence of sin. In effect, the believers left after the removal of the incestuous believer would represent that body of Christ that is sinless or pure without contamination of sin. This truth is conveyed in the clause of 1 Corinthians 5:7 as you really are that literally reads as you are unleavened. Subsequently, we ended our last study by stating that what the apostle writes next indicates he was thinking of superior spiritual status of the Corinthians that is free from sin because of the work of Christ on the cross. As we promised in our last study, it is with this clause that we begin our study today.
The last clause of 1 Corinthians 5:7 that conveys that the apostle was certainly thinking of the issue of superior spiritual status of the Corinthians, and so that of all believers, because their sins have been forgiven or dealt with is For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. This clause supplies in an emphatic manner the reason the Corinthians, and so all believers, are in their superior spiritual status. Based on the translation of the NIV or many of our English versions, one cannot see that the clause is given in an emphatic manner. However, the Greek clause begins with a Greek conjunction (kai) that is often translated “and” in the English. However, the word has several other usages. It may be used as a marker to introduce a result that comes from what precedes the clause that follows it and so it may be translated “and then, and so.” The word may be used as a marker to indicate an additive relation of a clause that is not of equal significance with the clause or sentence which precedes it and so means “also, likewise.” It may be used as a marker of explanation of what precedes it in which case it may be translated “that is, namely.” The conjunction may also be used as a marker of emphasis leading to the meaning “indeed, even.” The question, of course, is how to interpret the conjunction in our passage. Majority of the English versions left it untranslated. The translators of the NASB translated it using the word “also” probably implying that the clause that follows is not of equal significance with the preceding clause although of the same nature. That notwithstanding, in our passage of 1 Corinthians 5:7, the conjunction is used as a marker of emphasis, involving surprise and unexpectedness. This interpretation is reflected in such English versions as the KJV and the NEB although the REB have dropped it since the emphasis is placed on the preceding clause. That aside, we indicated that the emphasis involves surprise and unexpectedness because there is the implication that it is surprising and unexpected that Christ died for us to purify us or to make us His holy people. This fact become clearer as we consider the clause For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
We asserted that the clause provides in an emphatic manner the reason the Corinthians, and so all believers, are in their superior spiritual status. This interpretation is based on the word “for” that begins the last clause of 1 Corinthians 5:7. The word “for” is translated from a Greek conjunction (gar) that is used in different ways in the Greek. The Greek conjunction may be used as a marker of cause or reason so that it may be translated “for” or “because” in the English. It may be used as a marker of clarification or explanation so that it may be translated in the English with the word “for” or “you see.” It is in this sense that the word is used, for example, to explain how Lot felt when he lived in Sodom where the people were corrupt, as indicated in 2 Peter 2:8:
(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—
Under this second usage, the Greek word may be used as a narrative marker to express continuation or connection in which case the Greek word may be left untranslated in the English translation. There are more nuances of the Greek conjunction under this second usage. The Greek conjunction may be used to signal an important point or transition to another topic, leading to the translation “well, then, you see.” It can also be translated “yes, indeed, certainly, surely”, especially when the Greek conjunction is used in replies, confirming what has been asked. This is how the translators of the NIV rendered it in the answer to the question Apostle Paul raised regarding the Thessalonians being those who will be his and his team’s joy or crown when Jesus Christ appears, as stated in 1 Thessalonians 2:20:
Indeed, you are our glory and joy.
The Greek conjunction is here in 1 Thessalonians 2:20 translated “indeed.” That aside, there is another usage of the Greek conjunction in question. It is as a marker of inference so that it may be translated “certainly, by all means, so, then.” In our passage of 1 Corinthians 5:7, the Greek conjunction is used to provide the reason the Corinthians, and so all believers, are in superior spiritual status which is that their sins have been forgiven them through the death of Christ on the cross.
The reason that it is because of Christ’s death on the cross for the Corinthians, and so for all believers, are in superior spiritual status is introduced in sentence of 1 Corinthians 5:7 Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. This clause implies that there is more to the teaching of Apostle Paul to the Corinthians that we are not informed. Why you may ask? It is because of the idea of Passover lamb. The Corinthians were mostly Gentile believers so they would have not known anything about Passover unless the apostle had taught them something about Israel’s exodus from Egypt or that some members of the congregation who were of Jewish descent explained this concept to the Corinthians. It is more likely that the apostle himself carried out the instruction about the Passover while he was in Corinth for him to reference something that was not in the background of Gentile believers.
In any case, the expression “Passover lamb” of the NIV is translated from a Greek word (pascha) that may mean “the Passover” which is an annual Israelite festival commemorating Israel’s exodus from Egypt celebrated on the 14th of the month Nisan (first month of Israel’s calendar) and continuing into the early hours of the 15th. It was immediately followed by the Feast of Unleavened bread as we can gather from Mark 14:1:
Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him.
Although the two festivals are different but through popular usage and for practical purposes the two were emerged and treaty as a unit as reflected in Luke 22:1:
Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching,
The word may refer to “the Passover lamb,” that is, the lamb sacrificed for the observance of the Passover, as it is used in Luke 22:7:
Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.
The word may mean “the Passover meal” as it is used forthe eating of the Passover meal that Jesus instructed two of His disciples to make preparation for it in Luke 22:8:
Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 5:7, it is in the sense of “the Passover lamb” that it is used although in a figurative application to the Lord Jesus.
The Passover lamb, as we have indicated previously, refers to the animal used in the celebration of the Passover. It is commonly believed that the animal is a lamb, that is, a sheep but that is not quite accurate. This is because the Hebrew word (śěh) translated “lamb” refers to a young small livestock such as sheep or goat. It is true that the Hebrew word is predominantly translated “sheep” or “lamb” in our English versions, nonetheless, the Hebrew word is used to include “goat” in Deuteronomy 14:4:
These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,
The phrase the sheep, the goat is literally small livestock of the sheep and a small livestock of the goats. Here the Hebrew word is translated “small livestock” so that both sheep and goats are considered small livestock implying that the Hebrew word could refer to sheep or goat. Anyway, the animal that is to be described as the Passover lamb could be sheep or goat. In subsequent practice of the celebration of Passover, it seems that the animal could be taken not only from small livestock but also of cattle as conveyed in Deuteronomy 16:2:
Sacrifice as the Passover to the LORD your God an animal from your flock or herd at the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for his Name.
The understanding that the Passover lamb could include cattle is implied in the celebration of the Passover in the time of King Josiah for we read in 2 Chronicles 35:1:
Josiah celebrated the Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem, and the Passover lamb was slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the first month.
The Passover lamb seemed to have included cattle as we may deduce from 2 Chronicles 35:7:
Josiah provided for all the lay people who were there a total of thirty thousand sheep and goats for the Passover offerings, and also three thousand cattle—all from the king’s own possessions.
The point is that the animal described as Passover lamb is not necessarily sheep but any other small animal or cattle that is one year old and without defect, that is, ceremonially clean. This requirement is given in a passage we will cite shortly in connection with our consideration of the Passover lamb. This aside, there are two facts we need to recognize about the Passover lamb.
A first fact about the Passover lamb is that it is an animal that is to serve as part of a meal for the Israelites during the celebration of the Passover. This fact is conveyed in the instruction that established the celebration in Exodus 12:3–5:
3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.
Notice that the year-old male is to be taken from sheep or goats as we indicated previously regarding how more comprehensive the understanding of the Passover lamb is. The requirement of male animal should be understood to convey that the true Passover Lamb would take on male form when He appears. This is not intended to convey any sexism but the reality that Jesus Christ would be equated to the first Adam. By the way, the male represents both male and female as that is why in creation both man and woman were described as man in Genesis 5:2:
He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them “man.”
A second fact about the Passover lamb is that originally, the animal that was slaughtered was first used to provide blood that was put on the doorposts of the Israelites’ houses so that everyone in the house with the blood on the doorpost was kept safe when the Lord killed all the firstborns in Egypt, as we read in Exodus 12:21–23:
21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. 23 When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
The instruction given here implies that anyone who had his doorpost with blood as stated would be protected. This means that if an Egyptian or another foreigner living in Egypt saw what the Israelites were doing and copied them such a person would be protected. Of course, for a person to copy the Israelites would mean that the individual must have accepted the God of the Hebrews is the true God. Conversely, if any Israelites refused to obey this instruction, such a person would have suffered the same consequence as the Egyptians. We do not know if anyone did what we stated but the point is to show that the instruction God gave to Israel was for the protection of anyone who obeyed it. In any event, the Passover lamb’s death was to provide protection from God’s wrath for those who had blood on their doorposts.
The Passover lamb was not associated with sin, so why would Apostle Paul in the context of dealing with sin describe Jesus Christ as Passover lamb? To answer this question, we should briefly consider the use of lamb in the OT times. The first reference of lamb for sacrifice is when Abraham assured Isaac that God would provide the lamb for burnt offering, as stated in Genesis 22:8:
Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
This declaration of Abraham conveys the concept of substitutionary sacrificial victim and so anticipates the substitutionary death of Christ for us. That aside, lambs were used for different kinds of sacrifices under Levitical priesthood. The daily sacrifice required of Israel involved the use of lambs as stated in Exodus 29:38–41:
38 “This is what you are to offer on the altar regularly each day: two lambs a year old. 39 Offer one in the morning and the other at twilight. 40 With the first lamb offer a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil from pressed olives, and a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering. 41 Sacrifice the other lamb at twilight with the same grain offering and its drink offering as in the morning—a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire.
Fellowship offering required the use of lambs, according to Leviticus 3:6–7:
6 “‘If he offers an animal from the flock as a fellowship offering to the LORD, he is to offer a male or female without defect. 7 If he offers a lamb, he is to present it before the LORD.
Sin offering required specifically female lambs as we gather from Leviticus 4:32–35:
32 “‘If he brings a lamb as his sin offering, he is to bring a female without defect. 33 He is to lay his hand on its head and slaughter it for a sin offering at the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered. 34 Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. 35 He shall remove all the fat, just as the fat is removed from the lamb of the fellowship offering, and the priest shall burn it on the altar on top of the offerings made to the LORD by fire. In this way the priest will make atonement for him for the sin he has committed, and he will be forgiven.
It is not only that lambs were involved for atonement for sins, but they were used for ritual cleansing. For example, cleansing from infectious diseases involved the offering of lamb, as recorded in Leviticus 14:23–25:
23 “On the eighth day he must bring them for his cleansing to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, before the LORD. 24 The priest is to take the lamb for the guilt offering, together with the log of oil, and wave them before the LORD as a wave offering. 25 He shall slaughter the lamb for the guilt offering and take some of its blood and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot.
Our consideration of the use of lamb in the OT enables us to understand why the Holy Spirit led Apostle Paul to describe Jesus as the Passover lamb. It is because the death of Christ on the cross covers both usages of Passover lamb and that of lamb in the OT. We noted that the use of lamb in OT leaves us with several concepts. We have the concept of substitutionary death of a sacrificial animal, the concept of maintaining fellowship with God, the concept of atonement for sins, and concept of cleansing and, of course, the concept of protection from God’s wrath. All these concepts are represented in the death of Christ on the cross for us. He died in our place to provide us fellowship with God both now and in the eternal state, to protect us from the wrath of God due to sin, and to provide continuous cleansing of our sins. Thus, it is fitting for the Holy Spirit to speak through Apostle Paul of Jesus Christ as our Passover lamb. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit has also conveyed through others the idea of Jesus Christ being our Passover lamb in the sense of Him dying for our sins. John the Baptist described Jesus as the Lamb of God who is the solution to our sins, that is, He was provided by God for forgiveness of sin of the world, as we read in John 1:29:
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Apostle Peter described Jesus Christ simply as the lamb without defect, which is an obvious reference to the Passover lamb, as we read in 1 Peter 1:18–19:
18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
Apostle John described the resurrected Christ as the Lamb in Revelation 5:6–9:
6 Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. 8 And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.
Thus, although it is only through Apostle Paul that the Holy Spirit directly described Jesus as our Passover lamb, the others described him as lamb where there could be no doubt that the imagery conveyed by the Passover lamb is implied.
The Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul was careful to convey to us that the imagery of the Passover lamb is fully displayed in the Lord Jesus Christ. We say this because of the verbal phrase of 1 Corinthians 5:7 has been sacrificed that further described Christ as the Passover lamb. The word “sacrificed” is translated from a Greek word (thuō) that in a general sense means “to kill, slaughter,” that is, “to take life” as the word is used in Jesus’ description of a thief in John 10:10:
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
The word may mean “to sacrifice,” that is, to slaughter an animal in a ritual manner as a sacrifice to deity, as it is used in Mark 14:12:
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”
It is in the sense of “be sacrificed,” that is, to be killed as an act of atonement in regard to a deity that the word is used in our passage of 1 Corinthians 5:7. The idea of atonement involved in the sacrifice here should be understood as we have previously explained why the apostle described Jesus Christ as the Passover lamb. Furthermore, we should recognize that although the Passover lamb was not used for atonement but its offering although not necessarily on an altar is still considered a sacrifice, as implied in the passage we cited previously, that is, Deuteronomy 16:2:
Sacrifice as the Passover to the LORD your God an animal from your flock or herd at the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for his Name.
Anyway, the apostle in writing the last sentence of 1 Corinthians 5:7 Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed was concerned to convey that the reason the Corinthians, and so all believers, are in superior spiritual status is that their sins have been forgiven them through the death of Christ on the cross.
In any event, the first instruction of the apostle in this section is for the Corinthians to remove urgently from their midst the specific sin of sexual immorality and by implication to quickly or urgently remove the incestuous believer. So, we proceed to consider the second instruction. But before we consider the second instruction, we should note that it is based on what is logically expected from an understanding of Christ’s death on the cross for us. It is this logical expectation that is introduced with the first word of 1 Corinthians 5:8 Therefore. The word is translated from a Greek conjunction (hōste) that may be used as a marker of result and so means “therefore, so, so that.” It may be used as a marker of purpose with the meaning “in order to.” However, in our passage of 1 Corinthians 5:8, it is used to draw an inference based on what was previously stated. In effect, it is on the basis of Christ being our Passover lamb that the second instruction is given.
The second instruction is that the Corinthians, and so believers, in general should celebrate their redemption or their superior spiritual status correctly by not abusing the freedom we have in Christ but to live a life of purity and devotion to the Lord. It is this instruction that is introduced in the first expression of 1 Corinthians 5:8 let us keep the Festival. The expression “keep the Festival” is translated from a Greek word (heortazō) that appears only here in the Greek NT that means “to celebrate a festival.” The word is used in the Septuagint. It is the word that is used when Moses and Aaron first delivered God’s message to Pharaoh of the necessity for Israel to hold a festival to their God, as recorded in Exodus 5:1:
Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.’”
It is with the meaning “to celebrate” that the word is used in establishment of the Passover feast in Exodus 12:14:
“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD—a lasting ordinance.
It is in the sense of celebration of Passover that the word is used in 1 Corinthians 5:8.
The Passover celebration is a festivity that was intended to celebrate how the Lord spared Israel when He killed the firstborns of the Egyptians, as given in Exodus 12:24–27:
24 “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. 25 When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. 26 And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ 27 then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’ ” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.
No one that is ritually unclean would celebrate it, hence the Lord made provision for such a person to celebrate it on another time when it is assumed the person is ritually clean, as that is implied in the instruction of Numbers 9:9–13:
9 Then the LORD said to Moses, 10 “Tell the Israelites: ‘When any of you or your descendants are unclean because of a dead body or are away on a journey, they may still celebrate the LORD’s Passover. 11 They are to celebrate it on the fourteenth day of the second month at twilight. They are to eat the lamb, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12 They must not leave any of it till morning or break any of its bones. When they celebrate the Passover, they must follow all the regulations. 13 But if a man who is ceremonially clean and not on a journey fails to celebrate the Passover, that person must be cut off from his people because he did not present the LORD’s offering at the appointed time. That man will bear the consequences of his sin.
Thus, anyone that is not ceremonially clean would not celebrate it. That aside, the celebration is for remembrance of God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt. This being the case, when the apostle referred to its celebration by believers, he was being metaphorical. I mean that he did not state that Corinthians and so all believers should celebrate the Passover but that we should celebrate our freedom in Christ on a continuous basis by living a life of purity and devotion since the apostle used a present tense in the Greek for the instruction let us keep the Festival.
There is the tendency for some to abuse what it means to be free in Christ as implying doing as one pleases without being conscious of sin or living a very careless moral life with the mentality that there is nothing wrong in their lifestyle since Christ already paid for their sins. Therefore, the apostle explains that celebration of freedom in Christ or our redemption should not involve sinful conduct as in the next phrase of 1 Corinthians 5:8 not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness. This phrase appears to be concerned with two different vices but that is not the case. The apostle is concerned with the single issue of perversion of virtue and moral principles. It does not appear that this is the case since the phrase reads not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness. Hence, we need to demonstrate that the phrase not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness is concerned with single issue of perversion of virtue and moral principles. To begin with, we have already noted that the phrase old yeast refers to specific sin of sexual immorality but generally the phrase refers to sinful conduct associated with being an unbeliever. Thus, the metaphor old yeast/leaven is used for sinful conduct of pre-salvation experience. To ensure that we understand that this is the case, the apostle explained the metaphor using the two words “malice” and “wickedness” that say the same thing which is perversion of virtue and moral principles. We are sure of this because of the Greek words used.
The word “malice” is translated from a Greek word (kakia) that may mean a state involving difficult circumstances hence means “trouble, misfortune,” as the word is used in Matthew 6:34:
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
The Greek word may mean “wickedness, baseness, depravity” so it is the word used to describe the denouncement of Simon the sorcerer by Apostle Peter where it is translated “wickedness” in Acts 8:22:
Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart.
The Greek word may mean a mean-spirited or vicious attitude or disposition and so means “malice, ill-will, malignity.” It is in the sense of malice that the word is used when Apostle Paul instructed the Colossians regarding the vices, they are to get rid of because of their new state as believers in Christ in Colossians 3:8:
But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 5:8, it means “wickedness” in the sense of “a hostile, unfriendly, or hateful disposition” so that the meaning “malice” is proper. The word “wickedness” used in the phrase not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness of 1 Corinthians 5:8 is translated from a Greek word (ponēria) that is used in our Scripture only in the ethical sense with the meaning “wickedness, maliciousness, sinfulness, evil”, as it is used in Luke 11:39:
Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.
You will notice that the two Greek words translated “malice” and “wickedness” in the NIV have a common meaning of “wickedness.” As we noted, the first Greek word (kakia) may mean a state involving difficult circumstances hence means “trouble, misfortune.” To ensure that one does not apply this later meaning, the apostle used the second Greek word (ponēria) to limit the understanding of the first as only involved with ethical principle. So, we are correct to assert that the two words say the same thing in our passage. Furthermore, the apostle joined the two words with a Greek conjunction (kai) that is often translated “and” in our English versions to connect words or clauses, but it has several other usages. In this first usage of the word in 1 Corinthians 5:8, it is used as a marker of explanation in that it is used with the second Greek word for the purpose of explaining the first Greek word. Hence, either way we approach the phrase the yeast of malice and wickedness of 1 Corinthians 5:8, we should understand that it is concerned with a single issue of perversion of virtue and moral principles. Consequently, the apostle intended to convey that the celebration or enjoyment of the life in Christ or the freedom in Christ should not consist of lack of moral principles or virtues.
The apostle conveyed that he is concerned with moral principle or righteous living that when he flipped the other side of the coin that deals with his concern, he presented the positive the Holy Spirit expects of believers in Corinth, and so of all believers. We say this because the last phrase of 1 Corinthians 5:8 begins with the word but that is translated from a Greek word (alla) that may be used as a marker of contrastive emphasis in which case it may be translated “certainly” but in our verse it is used as a marker of contrast and so may be translated “but.” However, since what preceded is something negative, then what follows is regarded as positive. This means that the apostle presented what the Holy Spirit expects of believers in Corinth, and so of all believers.
The expectation of the Holy Spirit is for believers in Corinth to live a life characterized by purity, truthfulness and dependability as in the last phrase of 1 Corinthians 5:8 but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. The word “bread” here refers to unleavened bread as that which does not contain an element that causes bread to rise. The word “sincerity” is translated from a Greek word (eilikrineia) that means “sincerity, purity of motive,” that is, to the quality or state of being free of deceit or duplicity, as it is used by Apostle Paul to describe his conduct towards the Corinthians, as we read in 2 Corinthians 1:12:
Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God’s grace.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 5:8, it means “sincerity,” that is, the quality of being honest and straightforward in attitude and speech. Hence, the apostle is concerned with a lifestyle that is free from deceit or duplicity where we think of one thing and do the opposite. It means to have a wrong thought but act as if one has the correct thought.
The word “truth” is translated from a Greek word (alētheia) with a range of meanings. It may mean the quality of being in accord with what is true hence means “truthfulness, dependability, uprightness in thought and deed”, as it is used for God in Romans 3:7:
Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?”
It is in this sense of being in accord with what is truth that the apostle used it in his appeal to the Corinthians not to let his boasting about them turn out to be empty so that he would be put to shame as stated in 2 Corinthians 7:14:
I had boasted to him about you, and you have not embarrassed me. But just as everything we said to you was true, so our boasting about you to Titus has proved to be true as well.
The verbal phrase has proved to be true is more literally has become truth. The Greek word may mean “reality” as opposed to mere appearance, as it is used in Colossians 1:6:
that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.
“Truth” here has the sense of “reality” as opposed to mere appearance. It is for this reason that the translators of the TEV rendered the phrase in all its truth of the NIV as, as it really is. The Greek word that is translated “truth” may mean the content of what is truth and so means “truth.” It is in this sense that the apostle used it to encourage the Ephesians not to be involved with falsehood as they interacted with each other in Ephesians 4:25:
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.
The command speak truthfully is literally speak truth. The word is used then especially of the content of Christianity as the ultimate truth. It is in this sense Apostle Paul used it in connection with the gospel in Colossians 1:5:
the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel.
The phrase the word of truth, the gospel is literally the word of truth of the gospel. The rendering of the NIV is quite good because of the Greek syntax of this phrase. In fact, to communicate fully the idea of the Greek construction we could translate the Greek phrase as the word of truth, that is, the gospel; in this way, it is clearer that the word of truth here is a reference to the gospel message. The apostle used the Greek word to refer to the Christian message that includes doctrine and the gospel message in Galatians 5:7:
You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?
Truth here in Galatians 5:7 refers to the Christian message the apostle delivered to the Galatians that includes the gospel message, the doctrine of justification by faith, and the doctrine that the filling of the Spirit is by faith. The apostle used the Greek word rendered “truth” as a reference to the body of accepted Christian doctrines that the church is the custodian in 1 Timothy 3:15:
if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
Anyway, we have noted the range of meanings of the Greek word translated “truth” in 1 Corinthians 5:8 so the question is to determine how it is used in our passage. It is “truth” in the sense of conformity to reality with the implication of dependability or even devotion. Hence, the apostle meant that believers in Corinth, and so all believers, should show faithfulness and devotion to the Lord in the way we conduct ourselves.
The point of the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul is that believers in Corinth, and so all believers, should not misapply the concept of freedom in Christ. It is the same point that he wrote to the Galatians in Galatians 5:13:
You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.
His second instruction to the Corinthians is essentially the same thing as living the new life in Christ that involves pursuit of righteousness that the apostle indicated should be the goal of those who are in Christ in Romans 6:4:
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
In any event, we are to habitually or continually celebrate the fact that we are in a superior spiritual status than unbelievers by continuously living a life of righteousness. We are to be characterized by purity, truthfulness, and dependability. Can we count on you to be these in time of difficulty? Can your spouse count on you to be these during tough times? As we end our study of this section of 1 Corinthians 5:1-8, let me end by stating the overall message of the section, which is that a local congregation of believers in Christ must not tolerate sexual immorality among its members and so must discipline anyone involved in it.
08/09/19