1 Corinthians 5:7 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Purge out therefore the old leaven— The Apostle continues the figure from unleaved bread, 1 Corinthians 5:6 with a particular view to the Jewish passover, in which it was forbidden. "As therefore it was the manner of the Jews at their passover, especially on the day of preparation, to search diligently if the least morsel of leavened bread were left in their houses, and carefully to remove it all,—in like manner do you also put away this incestuous person, and every other contagious evil; commencing a people pure and incorrupt, in order to your due celebration of the Christian passover;—for even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. We have a festival to keep, as well as the Jews; a paschal Lamb was slain and sacrificed for our redemption, of which the lamb offered under the law for the deliverance from Egypt was but a type; and their flight out of that house of bondage was but a typical representation of our hastening out of the more cruel bondage of sin." It is probable that this Epistle was written near the festival of Easter: see ch. 1 Corinthians 16:8 where the Apostle says he shall stay at Ephesus, where he then was, till Pentecost. See Bp. Lavington's Sermon, "On the nature and use of a type," Ridley's Sermons on the Christian Passover, and Heylin.