Wednesday, March 10, 2010
1 Corinthians 5:7-8 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. 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.
PURGE OUT THE OLD LEAVEN
Sin both enslaves and condemns. The Son of God came to set us free from both. What's leaven got to do with this? It's just a twist of dough left unbaked from a previous batch, dough in which the leavening culture is alive and active causing the bread to rise. It may give off a sour smell since the dough is fermenting (hence the name "sour-dough" for a famous San Francisco bread), but baking the dough makes most of that a thing of the past.
It is because of its nature and properties that leaven is a picture of sin and its corruption.
Leaven puffs up the bread. There is not actually any more bread there, it just seems like it. In like manner sin puffs up the soul yet we are no greater for thinking ourselves better than others.
Leaven is passed down from batch to batch. Sin is passed down from generation to generation (inherited and learned).
Sin is also like leaven in that it spreads unseen until it permeates every part of its "host." Sin is not just words and thoughts. It's an infection within, welling up in selfishness, pride, and rebellion against God.
As Christians we are not simply "against sin" because it's bad. Sin -- especially sin as a lifestyle, as a way of thinking and living -- is symptomatic of slavery to Satan. It demonstrates an allegiance to self, not to God. But, Paul says to the believer, that's not what you are.
Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump. Christ-believers truly are unleavened. They have been redeemed by God's own Son and through His forgiveness restored to God's own family.
We are "brand new" in Christ. So let us get rid of the old way of thinking and acting that clings to us because of the sinful flesh and the influence of the world around us.
