1 Corinthians 5:8

wherefore 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.

'let us keep the feast' -The original Passover feast was followed by the seven day Feast of Unleavened Bread. (Exodus 2:15; Exodus 2:18; Deuteronomy 16:3) 'Let us keep on keeping the feast,. perpetual feast.' (Robertson p. 114) 'Continued action' (Gr. Ex. N.T. p. 810)

Point to Note:

The Whole Christian life is likened to the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This demands that "joy" is found in serving God. (1 Peter 3:1) But this "feast" we are to keep without "leaven" (sinful ways and attitudes).

'not with old leaven' -'leaven of former days.' (TCNT) 'The disposition of the person prior to regeneration..the dispositions of the old man.' (Willis p. 170) 'This at least includes an elimination of the kinds of sexual immorality represented by the excluded man.' (Fee p. 219) An appeal to get rid of any remains from the old lifestyle in sin. (Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:5)

'neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness' -'Vicious disposition and evil deed.' (Robertson p. 114); 'the leaven which is vice and wickedness.' (Alford p. 1003) 'These two words are synonyms, which gather under their umbrella every form of iniquity.' (Fee p. 219)

'Both appertain to the case of the man whom the Corinthians should have expelled as well as to their evil way of taking no action whatever in this case.' (Lenski p. 223)

'of sincerity and truth' -'the purity of heart..to which all sympathy with evil is completely foreign.' (Willis p. 171) 'Purity and honesty of intent' (Phi); 'of unadulterated truth' (Phi)

'truth' -'the inner desire for divine reality which tolerates and accepts no shams.' (Lenski p. 223)

'In an age in which ethics is too often modified to fit one's present cultural existence --these words need once more to be heard distinctly in the church. Christ has died for us not simply to give us passage to heaven but re-create us in his own image, so that both individually and corporately we may express the character of God by the way we live in. world whose behaviour is "polished nice" but which lacks the purity and truth of the gospel. It is extremely unfortunate when God's own people, as in this case, look more like their surroundings than they do their Lord himself.' [Note:. Fee pp. 219-220]