It happens. You are a happy little clam reading your Bible and then BAM! You have no idea what you just read. It happens to all of us. Take for example: “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 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” (1 Cor 5:7-8).
Clean out what? Is there an expiration date on my “leaven”? I’m not sure I want to be a “new lump.” What festival are we talking about? See what I mean?
Don’t freak. Compare Bible versions. It’s easy! Click below and type in your verse. It will appear in the NIV version. Click on the little NIV box and a boatload of versions will pop up.
Let’s pick three.
Good News Translation (GNT) “You must remove the old yeast of sin so that you will be entirely pure. Then you will be like a new batch of dough without any yeast, as indeed I know you actually are.”
Alrighty then, “old leaven/yeast” = get rid of your old sinful habits!
The Message (MSG) “So get rid of this ‘yeast.’ Our true identity is flat and plain, not puffed up with the wrong kind of ingredient. The Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has already been sacrificed for the Passover meal, and we are the Unraised Bread part of the Feast. So let’s live out our part in the Feast, not as raised bread swollen with the yeast of evil, but as flat bread—simple, genuine, unpretentious.”
Yessiree bob, a “new lump/unleavened bread” = in Christ, you’re flatbread!
New International Version (NIV) “Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 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.”
Hooray! To “celebrate the festival/feast” = be who “you really are” in Christ!
