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Let Us Keep The Feast: Purge Out The Old Leaven

February 25, 2007

1 Corinthians 5:6-8 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 7 Purge out [aorist, active, imperative] therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 8 Therefore 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.

Outside the church = in the world

Ephesians 2:12-13 That at that time ye (Gentiles in the church at Ephesus) were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

Paul addresses the behavior in the church

1 Timothy 3:14-15 These things write I unto thee…that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

You are either outside or inside the church

1 Corinthians 5:12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? (NIV)

Paul’s deep concern was for those on the inside

2 Corinthians 11:28 besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.

Sin tolerated in the church

1 Corinthians 5:1 It is reported commonly that there is [presently] fornication among you (“the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus”), and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles (those outside the church, in the world), that one should have his father’s wife.

The sins of world should be unknown among the church

Ephesians 5:3 But fornication and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is fitting among saints.

God finds no pleasure in wickedness

Psalm 5:4 For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.

Jesus does not tolerate sin in His church

Revelation 2:20 But I (Jesus) have this against you (the church in Thyatira v.18), that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and beguiling my servants to practice immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

Fools take sin lightly

Proverbs 14:9 Fools make a mock at sin…

In mourning they should have removed the wicked man

1 Corinthians 5:2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

The corruption of sin spreads like leaven in a lump of dough

1 Corinthians 5:6 Your glorying [or boasting] is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

Each member of the one body is joined one to another

Romans 12:5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

No division between the members of the one body

1 Corinthians 12:25-26 That there should be no schism [or no division] in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. 26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.

Responsibility of each member

Ephesians 4:31-32 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

Disciples of Christ have a reputation of love for each other

John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples (my church), if ye have love one to another.

Christian love

1 Corinthians 13:4-6 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil [or “it keeps no record of wrongs,” NIV]; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.

Purge out the old leaven!

1 Corinthians 5:7 Therefore, purge out the old leaven (remove that wicked person), that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

Keep the feast in the church

1 Corinthians 5:8 Therefore (since Christ is our Passover) let us (in Lord’s church) keep the feast [present, active, subjunctive], not with old leaven (with that wicked person), neither with the leaven of malice [a concealed hatred] and wickedness [outward acts]; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

How you live should reflect what you “look for”

2 Peter 3:13-14 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.

A chosen church should behave as a chosen church

Ephesians 1:4 According as he hath chosen us (the members of His body, the church) in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: