1 Corinthians 5:6-8—”Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, even as ye are unleavened. For our passover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ: wherefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
There is a common saying that “there is no such thing as being a little pregnant”. Either the person is expecting a child or isn’t expecting one; it is black or white. The same applies to telling a lie, committing a sin, or straying from the Word of God. There is no grey area in this black or white space. One cannot sit on the fence between God’s Word and the contaminated acts of man. Either we love God and His righteous ways or man and his erring ways. We cannot be ok with both ways; we definitely need to take a side – make a choice of what is dearer to us.
When we are in the world, it seems so exciting, inviting and fun that we get tempted to give in ‘just this once’. And once we do something contrary to the Bible and of the world we may start to puff up and boast about it. The Bible compares the leavening agent in baking to the sins of the world. Even a pinch of a leavening agent in a big batch of dough garners a puffing result in the baked product. Similarly if we don’t get rid of the small bad habits or the ‘just this once’ things in our life, it may lead to a deeper life of sin and going away from God. But if we do try our best to get rid of the old yeast (old ways of sin) and ask God for pardon we become a new batch of dough without any leavening agent. This is possible only because Christ paid the price for all our sins, through the sacrifice of Himself. So let’s keep celebrating the festival of passover (of our life), neither with old yeast (old sins) nor with yeast that is evil and wicked (waywardness), but with yeast-free bread (Christ-filled life which is simple, genuine, and unpretentious both sincere and true).
Christ said along with beatitudes in the sermon on the mount –
(Matthew 5:29-30) If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.
