1 Corinthians 5:7-8 - Removin' The Old Yeast

 

1 Corinthians 5:7-8

 

NKJV

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.

 

NLT

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.

 

I’m not going into the detail of the context of these verses, you can catch up here 1 Corinthians 5:6 - Hammer & Heart Part Deux.  It’s important for sure. But I’m thinking about a different take on this, something personal.

 

I had a pastor friend of mine tell me one time that there’s nothing new, all pastors steal pieces and parts of other sermons…so I’m sure this is nothing new!

 

Using this thought of removing the “old yeast”, I’m struck by how much old yeast I have in my life. That’s right…there are things in my life that flat out don’t have a place in a believer.  Those very things can show up and lead me into things I shouldn’t be involved in.  As I grow in Christ, there are things that I used to think were no big deal…but now are a big deal.  I want nothing more than Christ to show up in me, so I have to remove the “old yeast” (those things that distract and drag me down) from my life.  Sounds pretty easy, doesn’t it? But even though I’m a new creation, this bag of flesh I live in has been trained really well to live in this world. So to remove the old yeast, I have to capture my thoughts.  I have to make sure that I’m leading with Jesus and not me in all things.

 

I do that by living with my whole life pointed toward God; by being in God’s word every chance I get; and by loving others the way Jesus loved me (as close to that as I can get, anyway!) Easy right? No, it’s not.  It takes effort and grit and try to remove those old habits. It takes trusting God in everything.

 

Remove the old yeast from your life or it’ll put you in places you never thought you’d go and leave you there longer than you ever thought you would stay.

 

Removin’ the yeast,

cej