Unleavened Christian life
Your boasting about this is
terrible. Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads
through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this
wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made
without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has
been sacrificed for us. So let us
celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with
the new bread of sincerity and truth.
1Corinthians
5:6-8 (New Living Translation)
In our
earlier discussion, we got to learn how Spiritual Pride affects us in our
everyday living. Pride always gets accompanied by boasting which is fairly straight
forward. We do not realize and brag about ourselves which is against the law.
We speak the truth accompanied by slight boasting which we feel to be fine and
not a lie or a sin as we think that we spoke the truth followed by just a
little boasting. We feel it's worth it and God's not angry but this is not what
the scripture says. If we follow the scripture it's a completely different
prospect.
The apostle Paul gives a vivid description in this context. He gives
the example of leaven. At times leaven is had by us as a delicacy but other
times we feel it as something miserable. In this example Paul is not taking
leaven as a delicacy but otherwise. Bread is like a necessity for everyday
living. We eat bread almost daily. If we come across leaven on bread, we try to
take it off or throw away the whole bread. Just as a little leaven leavens the
whole lump of bread disappointing us and resulting in us throwing off the
entire bread. Similarly, slight boasting coming from 'spiritual pride' results
in a small amount of sin and this tiny sin results in the devastation of our
entire Christian living.
Just as we get rid of yeast from our bread, the
church is encouraged to get rid of the yeast i.e sin. We have to sanctify
ourselves into new bread by getting off the old yeast (sin) being sinless as we
are a new creation in Christ. Christ crucified Himself for the forgiveness of
our sins. We have a chance to be saved. Our sins have been forgiven and we can
sanctify ourselves into fresh dough. 
Hence, we are being encouraged to live not
with the old yeast with wickedness and malice but without yeast, living a
spiritually sinless Christian life with sincerity and truth celebrating our
redemption.
Message
for the week:
We feel proud of ourselves when we initiate boasting which develops from Spiritual Pride. Thinking of ourselves as sanctified then, is a misconception and we are encouraged to try and stop such acts and live a "spiritually sinless Christian life with sincerity and truth". Recite this short prayer with me, "Lord, I realize that spiritual pride is hard for me to get rid of, leading me to be leavened and thrown away. I hereby wish to sanctify myself and get rid of all the leaven. Help me out in living an unleavened Christian life."
Amen
God bless you
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