1 Corinthiens 5:6-13

Your glorying is not good.

The true Church a feast

These verses lead us to look upon the true Church--

I. In its internal enjoyments. The association of Christly men is a “feast,” because it contains the choicest elements for--

1. Spiritual nourishment. The quickening and elevating ideas current in such fellowships constitute a soul banquet, “a feast of fat things.”

2. Spiritual gratification. What higher delight Shah the loving intercourse of kindred souls. The true Church is not a melancholy assemblage, but is the most joyous fellowship on earth.

II. In its external relation to the ungodly. There is a connection with ungodly men--

1. That it must avoid. As the Jews put away leaven at the Passover, so all corrupt men must be excluded from the Church feasts. Their presence, like leaven, would be contagious. No Church that has such leaven in it has any occasion for exultation (1 Corinthiens 5:6).

2. That it cannot avoid (1 Corinthiens 5:10). You cannot attend to your temporal affairs without contact with the ungodly, and as Christians you are bound to go among them to do them good. Over such you have no jurisdiction; they are “without,” and God is to judge them, not you. But if they creep into the Church you are to deal with them (1 Corinthiens 5:11). Observe here--

(1) That sin takes many forms. What is temptation to one man is not to another. One is tempted to be a “fornicator,” another a “miser,” &c.

(2) In whatever form this leaven shows itself it must not be tolerated for one moment. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

The evil of self-complacency

I. The spirit condemned.

1. Self-complacency.

2. Vanity.

3. Pride.

II. The evil of it.

1. Foolish, man has nothing to glory in.

2. Sinful in itself, often in its occasion.

3. Pernicious, it brings shame, humiliation, ruin. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

The leaven of sin works

1. Constantly.

2. Imperceptibly.

3. Powerfully.

4. Perniciously. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Sin a malignant leaven

I. In its nature.

1. Corrupting.

2. Spreading.

3. Assimilating.

II. In its effects--

1. Upon communities.

2. Upon individuals. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Purging out the leaven

“What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.” Evermore in Scripture the doctrines of grace are married to the precepts of holiness. Salvation in sin is not possible, it always must be salvation from sin. The apostle, while he was showing the Corinthians how wrong they were to ‘tolerate an incestuous person, compared the spirit of uncleanness to an evil leaven; then the leaven suggested the passover, and turning aside for a moment he applied that, so as to make his argument yet more cogent. Hard by any Scripture wherein you find the safety of the believer guaranteed, you are sure to see needful holiness set side by side with it. The purity of the house from leaven went side by side with its safety by the blood.

I. The happy condition of all true believers in Christ. “Christ our passover,” &c. The habitual state of a Christian is that of one keeping a feast in perfect security. Observe how the apostle puts it: Christ is our passover--that by which God’s wrath passes over from us who deserve its full vengeance: Christ is sacrificed, for He gave Himself for us. No new victim is expected or required. Let others offer what they will, ours is the Lamb once slain, and there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. This completeness of sacrifice indeed is the main part of the festival which the Christian should perpetually keep. If there were anything yet to be done, how could we celebrate the feast? “Therefore,” says the apostle--and it is a natural inference from it “let us keep the feast.”

1. The paschal lamb was not slain to be looked at, to be laid by, or merely made the subject of conversation; but it was slain to be fed upon. So it is your daily business to feed upon Christ, whose flesh is meat indeed, and whose blood is drink indeed. At the paschal supper the whole of the lamb was intended to be eaten; and thou art to feed upon the whole of Christ. No part is denied thee, neither His humiliation nor His glory, His kingship nor His priesthood, His Godhead nor His manhood.

2. A feast is not only for nourishment, but for exhilaration. Let us in this sense also keep a lifelong feast. The Christian is not only to take the doctrines which concern Christ, to build up his soul with, but he may draw from them the new wine of delight. At the passover the Jews were accustomed to sing. Let us keep the feast in the same way. Let your praises never cease.

3. At the passover the devout Jew was accustomed to teach his family the meaning of the feast. Let it be a part of our continual festival to tell to others what our Redeeming Lord has done. This precept does not refer merely to the Lord’s Supper; it is of continuous force. Let us keep the feast always, for the Lamb is always slain.

II. A holy duty commended to us. “Purge out, therefore, the old leaven.” “Let us keep the feast; not with old leaven,” &c.

1. Leaven is used in Scripture in every case but one as the emblem of sin. This arises from--

(1) Its sourness. Sin, which for awhile may seem pleasant, will soon he nauseous even to the sinner; but the very least degree of sin is obnoxious to God. We cannot tell how much God hates sin.

(2) Its corruption and corrupting influence. Sin is a corruption, it dissolves the very fabric of society and the constitution of man.

(3) Its spreading character. No matter how great the measure of flour, the leaven will work its way. Even thus it is with sin. One woman sinned, and the whole human race was leavened by her fault. If the leaven of evil is permitted in a Church, it will work its way through the whole of it.

(a) A little false doctrine is sure to pave the way for greater departures from truth. The doctrines of the gospel have such a close relation to one another, that if you snap a link you have broken the whole chain. “He that offendeth in one point is guilty of all.”

(b) The leaven of evil living, too, tolerated in one it will soon be excused in another, and a lower tone of thought with regard to sin will rule the Church. Sin is like the bale of goods which came from the East to this city in the olden time, which brought the pest in it. In those days one piece of rag carried the infection into a whole town.

2. This leaven must be purged out. In consequence of the command the head of the household among the Jews, especially when they grew more strict in their ritual, would go through the whole of the house on a certain day to search for every particle of leavened bread. With as scrupulous a care as the Israelite purged out the leaven from his house we are to purge out all sin from ourselves and in our conduct.

(1) The Jewish householder would very soon put away all the large loaves of leavened bread, just as we gave up at once all those gross outward sins in which we indulged before.

(2) Then perhaps the stray crusts which the children had left were put away. So there may be certain minor sins in the judgment of the world which the Christian man, when converted, may not put away the first week; but when they are seen he says, “I must have done with these.”

(3) But the most trouble would be caused by the little crumbs. We must not retain even a crumb of the evil leaven; we must earnestly desire to sweep it all out.

(4) The whole house was searched. A Christian man may feel that he has got rid of all the leaven from his shop, yet it may be there is leaven in his private house.

(5) A candle was used to throw a light into every corner of the house, that no leaven might escape notice. Take you the candle of God’s Word, the candle of His Holy Spirit.

(6) To purge out the old leaven many sweepings of the house will be wanted. For, mark you, you are sure to leave some leaven, and if you leave a little it will work and spread. It is hinted in the text that there are forms of evil which we must peculiarly watch against, and one is malice. I have known believers who have had a very keen sense of right, who have too much indulged the spirit deprecated here, i.e., they have been severe and censorious. Take good heed also that every form of hypocrisy be purged out, for the apostle tells us to eat the passover with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Let us leave off talking beyond our experience, let us never pray beyond what we mean.

III. The happiness of the believer acts upon his holiness, and his holiness upon his happiness.

1. The happiness acts upon the holiness.

(1) If I feed upon Christ, who has been sacrificed for me, the happiness I feel leads me to say, “My sins slew my Saviour, and therefore will I slay my sins.”

(2) Sitting as you do within the house, and knowing that you are all safe because the blood is on the lintel outside, you will say, “The firstborn sons of Egypt are slain, and I am preserved. Why I must be God’s firstborn, and must belong to Him.” “Ye are not your own,” &c.

(3) Moreover, the Christian is encouraged to put away his leaven of sin because he has the foresight of a profitable exchange. The Israelite gave up leavened bread, but he soon had angels’ food in the place of it.

(4) The Christian, too, who knows that his sin is forgiven, feels that the God who could put away his load of sin will surely help to conquer his corruptions.

2. Holiness produces happiness. How quiet doth the soul become when the man feels, “I have done that which was right, I have given up that which was evil.” What is it that makes God’s people look so sad? It is the old leaven. “Let us keep the feast”; but it is useless to hope to do so while we keep the leaven. Conclusion: There are some here who are not saved. Notice how salvation comes--not through purging cut the leaven; that operation is to be seen to afterwards, but because the Paschal Lamb is slain. Do not begin at the wrong end, begin with the Cross. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The purification of the Church

I. Its necessity arises from--

1. The existence of sin (1 Corinthiens 5:1).

2. Pride.

3. Disregard of the corrupting tendency of sin.

II. Its means.

1. The removal of that which offends.

2. Renewal.

3. Through the sacrifice of Christ.

III. Its motives.

1. The full enjoyment of fellowship in Christ.

2. Which is interrupted by malice and wickedness.

3. But enhanced by sincerity and truth. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Little sins

No man reaches at once an extremity of sin; the descent is not abrupt, but sloped. Little sins must creep in before great sins can find room. First the thin end of the wedge, to make way for the broader part. The ordinary laws of motion seem to apply to the spiritual ease; the speed increases fast after a time. So is the chain of sin slight at first and weak, like a single thread that seems scarcely to hold the soul, and which the soul hardly feels; and then it changes into a twisted skein, and then into a corded rope, and then into links of iron. So it is like a little leaven, that works on from part to part, till it has leavened the whole lump. Speak of a murder to a boy, and he will start in horror at the very word, and his blood run cold, as he thinks of tales of violent death. Yet the murderer was once a boy shuddering at the sight of a little blood, putting his hand with an uneasy conscience to some little sin. Little sins grow into great, first as it were a mere scratch on the flesh, and then a putrefying sore. Satan works like the leaven, not spreading his net over every part at once, but stealing his way to the dominion of our souls. So have we seen a little stream creeping through the fields, and then it has gathered other streams like itself, and these being joined to one another, have gone down together widening into a mighty river, that has swept down to the sea with its broad breast of waters and its strong rushing tide. Even so have we seen a small seed cast into the fruitful earth, and before long the seed has put forth its arms and opened for itself a way through the yielding soil, and the little stalk has risen with its green head above the earth, and the stalk has gradually broken forth into a strong plant, and the plant into a tree overshadowing the field. Allow little sins, suffer them to stay for a moment in our souls, and little they will not remain; open the door of our souls ever so little to any sin, and the sin will be soon master of the house and all that is therein. (J. Armstrong, D. D.)

Little sins--their injuriousness

Some brittle gold, having been accidentally melted with a quantity of well-refined and tough gold, was found to have rendered the whole mass brittle with a highly crystalline fracture, and therefore useless for coinage. The impurity causing brittleness in the whole 75,000 ounces was a small fraction of an ounce, probably one three-hundred-thousandth, or less, of the original weight. It will be seen from this that the saying holds good in metallurgy as well as in morals, “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump,” rendering it totally unfit for current uses, until it has been passed through a purifying process. (I. C. Booth, LL. D.)