Verse: 1 Corinthians 5:6,8
Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast – as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeasts of malice and wickedness, but the bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
Devotion
Paul is writing to the church in Corinth about how they are allowing, even proud of, a sinful person in their church. He uses the example of yeast which only a little is used to cause dough to rise. Yeast was prohibited during the Jewish holy day of Passover. Here Paul is saying that yeast is like sin, a little can affect the whole church. Paul’s remedy is not to be proud of this person, but to excommunicate him from the church for his egregious sin.
This is a hard passage! We are all sinners. There would be no church if all sinners were cast out. And yet Paul is saying that we must purge malice and wickedness and instead replace it with sincerity and truth. This is true for the church and for each of us. We have been made new by Jesus’ sacrifice that paid for our sins. Our actions should reflect that reality.
What are the sinful areas in your life that you need to remove? What have you been working on that continues to come back and pull at you? Today is a good day to bring these to God and ask for His help in turning away from them. Even if you have done this before, you may need to go to God again. With a sincere heart, tell him in truth that you repent and desire to be free. He will receive you back and help you walk away from your sin.
Prayer
Dear Lord, I am a sinner and want to be free. Help me to turn away from my sin and to come closer to you and your love for me. Thank you, Jesus, for paying with your life for my sin. Come into my life and strengthen me and make me whole in you.
Author: Brad Dunn
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