Bragging on Jesus...
Of 1 Corinthians 5:6-7, the ESV study bible says, "Not yeast (which was uncommon in the ancient world) but fermented dough, a little of which would be left from the previous week to be added to a new lump of dough. By analogy, when publicly known sin in the church is not subjected to church discipline, it will silently spread its destructive consequences throughout the whole fellowship."
Do you see it? Don't pass the leavened lump on to the new dough.
"Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." (1 Corinthians 5:6-8 ESV)
See, here's the thing, when God makes us spiritually alive, He makes us into new creatures. He doesn't need any of our old stuff ruining the new stuff.
Likewise, in a congregation, when old sin is left lumped into what God is doing to make the peoples new (individually and corporately), the same remains true. Don't bring old sin into new life. In addition, because the saved aren't perfect, don't bring new sin into new life. It only takes a little wrong to infect a lot of right.
Worse still is the individual or congregation that brags on sin. Being wrong is bad, but being wrong while also thinking you are right to the degree that one might boast about it is way, way wrong! Right?
"....Christ is our Passover lamb...therefore celebrate..." JESUS! Brag on Jesus! Brag on what He is bringing to life in you / us. Brag on what He is putting to death in you / us. Brag on how He has delivered us from sin and Satan in the same way Israel was delivered of slavery and Pharaoh in days of old. Brag on Jesus!
BRAG ON JESUS!
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