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1 Corinthians 5:8

ESV Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
NIV Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
NASB Therefore let’s celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
CSB Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old leaven or with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
NLT So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth.
KJV Therefore 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.
NKJV 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.

What does 1 Corinthians 5:8 mean?

Paul has commanded the Christians in Corinth to gather as the church and to remove from among them a man who was known to be in an ongoing sexual relationship with his father's wife (1 Corinthians 5:1–5). To drive home how important this is, Paul has used a metaphor of leavened bread during the Jewish Passover celebration. Jewish people were to remove any trace of leaven from their homes and eat only unleavened bread during the Passover.

In the previous verse, Paul wrote that the Christians in Corinth were already unleavened or purified. This is because Christ, the Passover lamb, had already died to pay the price for all their sin. Now the time had come for the Corinthians to live up to what they already were. They must remove the sin from among them that Christ had died for.

Paul calls them to celebrate the festival. He does not seem to mean that they should observe the Passover celebration. Instead, he seems to be saying that they should always be in a spirit of celebrating the truth that Christ's blood had paid for their sin. For Christians, this in an ongoing reason to rejoice, not a once-a-year celebration. Some Bible teachers connect Paul's mention of the festival with the Christian practice of communion.

In either case, Paul writes that those who are celebrating the forgiveness of their sins by the blood of Jesus must not do so while living in sin, the leaven of "malice and evil." Such sin has no place among those who rejoice over being forgiven for their sin. Instead, such rejoicers should live with sincerity and truth.
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