April 18, 2022
Today we are going to look at verses 6-8 from chapter 5 of 1 Corinthians. It is important to know that up to this point there is a man from the church at Corinth that has been having a sexual affair with his father’s wife (5:1). Apparently, everyone at the church knows, but their own prideful lives keep them moving forward and not addressing their fellow brother (5:2). So, Paul has instructed them to remove the man from the church and to turn him over to Satan in the Name of Jesus Christ (5:3-5). This removal might seem harsh at first, but we must remember that these believers, who are godly did not “gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path,” so now they too must “be careful not to fall into the same temptation” themselves (Gal 6:1).
As we look at this situation, are you asking yourself…wait, why is this spiritual family all not mourning for their brother’s hard place of sin, and why are they not praying for him to repent and turn back to Christ? Well, Paul identifies the cause of their indifference to the man’s sin as their own arrogance (5:2), which is now why we see that they are boasting for their own “success” (5:6).
The “success” of the church does not reside in one message, or in one performance, or in one person. Rather, the “success” of the church resides within the collective hearts of its believers as one spiritual family connected to Christ. Also, sin is sin…having an affair is sin and intentionally turning a blind eye to your own brother’s affair is sin.
Paul describes it perfect in an example of yeast (or in many translations as leaven). Yeast is used in making bread, when a little is added to flour it spreads throughout all of the flour. Paul uses the Passover celebration as an example, in today’s passage, because he knew it would be familiar to many. In preparation for the celebration, Jewish households remove all yeast (leaven), and they make and eat only unleavened bread. Much like the dough, Paul wants us, as Christ followers, to cleanse out all of the old dough (that contains yeast…or sin) and replace it with new dough (that does not contain yeast…or sin).
So, yesterday was Easter, let’s commit to throw out the old, wicked bread of sin and move forward with only the new bread of life, Jesus.
1 Corinthians 5:6-8 NLT
6 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? 7 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. 8 So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth.
Prayer: Jesus, thank You for being my new bread of life. Help me to live for You each day, and to be repulsed by sin in my life. Help me to be an encouragement to my fellow brothers and sisters, and to shine Your loving light on areas when they need help with their sin. Please allow my spirit to be open when my brothers and sisters shine a light on my sin. I pray for Your church, Lord. I pray for C2C Church, Lord. May You connect us to one another more than we’ve ever been connected, because You want us to be connected as one to you, Jesus. I pray all of this in Your Holy Name, Jesus. Amen.
Written by: Jennifer Auer, Pastor Mary Haley’s Assistant