Carla

Hypocrisy is alive and well in our world but we are called to reflect a better way to live…in Jesus and with the power of Holy Spirit within us. 

We are called to love others in spirit and in truth.

We must be very careful not to call evil, good nor good, evil!

1 Corinthians 5:6–8

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.

Leaven  (yeast) represents the man’s sexual immorality as well as the community’s prideful tolerance of his sin. Paul urges believers to stop tolerating immoral behavior. 

God commanded the Israelites to celebrate Passover with unleavened bread. In preparation for the feast, Jews cleaned their homes of all leaven (yeast). Likewise, the Corinthian believers must expel the sexually immoral man from among them. The apostles agreed at the Jerusalem Council that the Gentile Christians must abstain from sexual immorality. 

Just as lambs were slaughtered during the Passover feast to atone for sin, Christ died for the same purpose; His was the final payment for sin. Paul encourages the Corinthians to live a life dedicated to God in celebration of His grace and forgiveness. Faithlife Bible.

Like a tiny pinch of leaven spreading through a loaf of bread, unchallenged sin can soon contaminate the whole church. The sexual offender was guilty of sin, but the whole congregation was also guilty of ignoring the man’s disobedience and failing to hold him accountable. Left unchecked, this sin could have caused many new believers to commit sexual immorality.

Jewish people were required to sweep all leaven out of their houses in preparation for the Passover. The leaven here symbolizes the powerful influence of sin. The feast is a figure of speech for Christ. As Israel was to remove all leaven from the celebration of the Passover, so the Corinthians were not to contaminate their relationship with Christ with any malice or wickedness. NKJ Bible.

Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.

Matthew 16:6 Then Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.”