Hence the
evangelists speak of the feast as the Feast (or Days) of Unleavened
Bread. Mk 14, 1; Lk 22, 1.

2. Paul, in this lesson, explains the figure in brief but beautiful
and expressive words. He is prompted to introduce the subject by the
fact that in the preceding verses of this chapter he has been
reproving the Corinthians for their disposition to boast of the Gospel
and of Christ while abusing such liberty unto unchastity and other
sins. He admonishes them that, possessing the Gospel and having become
Christians, they ought, as becomes Christians, to live according to
the Gospel, avoiding everything not consistent with the faith and with
Christian character--everything not befitting them as new creatures.

3. So the apostle uses the figure of the Paschal lamb and unleavened
bread requisite at the Jews' Feast of the Passover, in his effort to
point the Corinthians to the true character and purpose of the New
Testament made with us in the kingdom of Christ. He explains what is
the true Paschal Lamb and what the unleavened bread, and how to
observe the real Passover, wherein all must be new and spiritual. In
the joy and wealth of his mind he presents this analogy to remind them
that they are Christians and to consider what that means.

His meaning is: Being Christians and God's true people, and called
upon to observe a Passover, you must go about it in the right way,
putting away from you all remaining leaven until it shall have been
purged out utterly.

What Paul means by "leaven" is told later in his phrase "neither with
the leaven of malice and wickedness"; he means whatever is evil and
wicked. Everything foreign to Christianity in both doctrine, or faith,
and life, is "leaven." From all this Paul would have Christians purge
themselves with the same thoroughness with which the leaven was to be
put away from their Easter according to the law. And, holding to the
figure, he would have us observe our Passover in the use of the sweet
bread, which, in distinction from the leaven, signifies sincerity and
truth, or a nature and life completely new.

4. The text, then, is but an admonition to upright Christian works,
directed to those who have heard the Gospel and learned to know
Christ. This is what Paul figuratively calls partaking of the true
unleavened bread--or wafers, or cakes. We Germans have borrowed our
word "cakes" from the phraseology of the Jewish Church, abbreviating
"oblaten," wafers, into "fladen," o