The Unleavened Bread Primarily Means Sanctification & Righteousness
6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. 8 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.
1 Corinthians 5:6-819 For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. 20You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.”‘ Exodus 12:19-20
10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Hebrews 10:10
The Unleavened Bread Primarily Means Sanctification & Righteousness
The meaning of the unleavened bread, as can be clearly seen in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, relates to getting the sin out of one’s life; i.e., sanctification. The leaven is a type of sin, In Exodus 12:19-20 the Hebrews were instructed to purge the leaven out of their houses. This is a picture of the Christian purging the sin out of his life.
We can plainly see that the unleavened bread of the Lord’s Supper pertains to our sanctification. Sanctification is the bread’s primary meaning. Healing for the body would be a parallel truth pertaining to the bread, but it is certainly not the bread’s primary meaning.
Also, in 1 Corinthians 5:7, Paul states that we are unleavened. Many would want this to mean forgiven; but it actually means dead to sin, or crucified with Christ, or that we have been sanctified (Hebrews 10:10). The great theme in Scripture is that we are dead to sin and therefore have the authority to purge the old leaven out of our lives.
Another way to look at this would be as follows: bread is symbolic for something that meets a persons needs. Ruth 1:6 states, “… the Lord had visited His people by giving them bread.” God was blessing His people with food to meet their needs. The eating of bread is a picture of getting one’s needs met. Now, the eating of bread that does not have leaven is a picture of getting one’s needs met in a way that does not involve sin. It is a picture of sanctified living.
People usually are tempted to sin when they have a desperate need. The devil sees their need and tempts them with an ungodly or sinful solution to their problem. Remember when Jesus was tempted to turn the rocks into bread after His fast? The bread of the Lord’s Supper symbolizes and implies a sanctified or godly way of getting one’s needs met. It symbolizes a sanctified or godly lifestyle.
Read more about The Lord’s Supper here to learn more about our Lord and the amazing power of communion.