Removing the Leaven From Our Lives

John Belt
John Belt

1 Corinthians 5:6b-8“?Know ye not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
 
All Glory To Jesus
God wants our lives to be filled with sincerity, purity and humility. Leaven (like yeast) is symbolic of something that “puffs up” and makes larger.
It does not take much to cause this. Jesus is the only One that we can give glory to. He is the only One worthy of it. If we are to glory in anything, it is the work that He has accomplished. We are the beneficiaries of what He has done. The good that dwells in us is the substance of His life-changing Presence.
 
God’s Accreditation
We are called to be yielded vessels, filled with His Life and Presence. It is His goodness that flows through us. It is really not about us. If the only thing we do is yield to His Spirit (and that is still by His grace), then everything, all the glory and all the credit goes to Him. Why would there be anything in us that would want credit anyway? Clearly our identity is found in Him. In most cases, those who are looking for attention (self-importance and etc.) have not found their affirmation in God. If we are content with His accreditation we are in a good place. If we are in Him, we are “hidden” in Him.
 
His Place is Reserved
God draws people to Him – becoming family, inheritors and beneficiaries of His glory and Presence. He makes us gateways of His glory so that His Name may be glorified in the earth. If Jesus is lifted up He will draw all men to Him. There is no cause or reason for anyone to displace the place that is reserved solely for the Lord Jesus Christ. Without Him, we really are quite the miserable spectacle, the best we can do is “filthy rags”. In Him we are kings, priests, prophets, the righteousness of God, peacemakers and much more, ready to be all that He calls us to. We have been made in such a way that we cannot function properly without God at the center and core of our being. It is His longing for us to be indwelled by His Holy Spirit, Christ in us the hope of glory.
 
Grace for A Higher Place
A leaven-less life is a covetous-free life. The only exception is in regards to the things of heaven, coveting the life of Christ in us. There needs to be a shift in the mind of the Church that realizes that God’s grace is meant to bring us up higher. His grace is not a license to live in a inferior place of sin and self-justification for acts of unrighteousness. God would not ask us to do something that He would not enable us to do. Hence, live a life free of leaven.
 
The Power of the Person
Jesus warned His disciples, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees”. It is the leaven of hypocrisy. It is a life that has a form of godliness, but denies and rejects God’s power to enable a person to live in a higher place of His glory and reality. We are not called to live by a list (the law), but to live with the Person of Christ in us. (2 Corinthians 3:6) In Christ “we are unleavened”. All we do is yield and abide in Him.
 
John 15:7
“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”
 
Ask the Lord to wash and cleanse your heart from the contaminations of this world, self-justifications of sin, covetousness and find the freedom that can only dwell in a heart that has been washed by the blood of Jesus and indwelt by His Holy Spirit.

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