•I Corinthians 5:1-8
•Unleavened
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. 3 For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. 4 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
(I Corinthians 5:1-4, ESV)
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 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. 8 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.
(I Corinthians 5:6-8, ESV)
•Main Point
• They establish the foundation for Church identity and ethics
• Because they are new in Christ they should get rid of the former sinful ways and live in accordance with Christ
• They can celebrate the Passover…because of the new identity they have in Christ
Application Points
• Unleavened
• This chapter is a good reason why there should be more book and verse by verse instruction in the Church
• These verses are often ignored by many today
• The lectionary, for example, doesn’t even have a verse from I Corinthians 5 read in its cycle
• As we consider these verses it shouldn’t surprise us there are many who have no response to the world when it comes to morality and ethics
• To be “loving” toward others is not to tell someone they are wrong, but to accept whatever their “truth” is
• We have embraced this with the hopes that others will accept us for being kind
• Congregations and denominations have ceased being unleavened bread in sincerity and truth
Application Points
• Unleavened (2)
• This is no different than the Corinthians Paul criticizes
• They have gone beyond the chains of the past ways of living
• The man who sleeps with his father's wife they accept because they are free
• In the American Church we have propped up homosexuality and transgenderism much the same way
• We have done so in the name of “love” that is defined as acceptance
• If we ignore everything Jesus and the Apostles taught, then they’ll fellowship with us!
Application Points
• Unleavened (3)
• Except the proper response to immorality is to cast it out of the congregation
• The proper response is mourning
• Some might say those Old Testament laws aren’t for us
• We aren’t culturally Jewish
• What is our responsibility as Christ followers to the Old Testament Law?
• Now that we are in Christ are we utterly freed from these things?
• Is it possible we do not fully grasp the Old Testament Law?
• The Law itself has a number of nuances
• Some laws inform what makes one unclean and the way to become clean through washing or sacrifice
• Other Laws, however, require the individual to be expelled from the community or put to death
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
(Matthew 5:17-20, ESV)
Application Points
• Unleavened (4)
• People will claim Jesus went after the religious…but not for their desire for righteousness
• The Law is to be understood in light of Christ and His fulfillment of it
• He is the perfect unblemished Son of God
• Jesus fulfills the sacrificial element of the Law
• The book of Hebrews is further dedicated to this understanding
• Now that we have no reason for sacrifice what does that entail?
• It means we are to seek holiness in this world precisely because Jesus has fulfilled the Law and the prophets
• We do not become the temple by seeking holiness, but that we are made the temple by Christ and seek to be holy because of what He has accomplished
• We can seek to understand the Law in light of Christ and let it teach us about Him
“24 “Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, 25 and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. 26 But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you 27 (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), 28 lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. 29 For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people. 30 So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your God.”
(Leviticus 18:24-30, ESV)
Application Points
• Unleavened (5)
• The first thing to notice is that God held the other nations to His standard
• It’s because the inhabitants of the land were practicing these unlawful sexual relationships that they were judged
• We notice the repercussions for practicing these things is that the land itself would vomit them out
• The natural reaction for nature when encountering darkness is to reject it
• Nature is morally neutral, yet the more it is utilized for evil the faster it will seek to end that which is using it for dark purposes
• It’s also interesting that this kind of overarching statement does not occur with other laws
• It is particular kinds of laws which God was judging the nations and we can know which laws they were because it tells us
Application Points
• Unleavened (6)
• Sexual ethics matters to God
• It does not hinge on whether the people are in love
• The man in today’s text could claim, as well as the stepmother, that they loved each other
• Does that make the fact that they were sleeping together good or right? No
• The action itself is what is forbidden
• Unfortunately the more we continue to let “love” be our guide, the more we find ourselves falling ever more into darkness
• Homosexuality was the first…and now it has descended into transgenderism
• Instead of teaching to love our bodies God has made we have adopted a, “do to yourself as you feel is right.”
Application Points
• Unleavened (7)
• Paul is right…a little leaven leavens the whole
• It is no wonder so many congregations have adopted these fleshly views of reality
• We can criticize those who are arrogant in their acceptance of such practices
• We see it isn’t just in accepted of these sexual immoralities
• How many scandals will our congregations need to endure before we get the point?
• Why are we surprised?
• The majority have adopted a completely separate sexual ethic than what is described in the Scriptures and has been adopted throughout Church history
• Why criticize the adulterous pastor when we allow other sexual immoralities?
• Why criticize pedophilia when we allow other sexual immoralities?
Application Points
• Unleavened (8)
• Our congregations are infested because we have allowed them to become infested
• Our congregations have lost all power because we have chosen malice and evil rather than sincerity and truth
• If only we held onto the truth
• We allow ourselves to be deceived by this world and its fallacious ideals
• We need to proclaim and live in the truth
• We know what is true because we know God the Father through the Son and the Spirit
• We have the evidence of truth before us in the Scriptures
• It is time for us to stop the games and the charade
• We have claimed to be above, to know more, than God Himself because we say what God calls sin is not sin
• Our definition of being unleavened? Love others and accept them
Application Points
• Unleavened (9)
• Enough is enough
• Incest, adultery, homosexuality, pedophilia, and bestiality are sins that we should reject in our congregations
• We should seek purity in our congregations for the purpose of glorifying God by stating plainly what is sexually immoral and an abomination in God’s sight
• We should do so in sincerity and truth
• I know it can be hard to call evil what the world is calling good
• We must not tolerate darkness in our midst, but seek to shine a light into the darkness
• This doesn’t mean a witch hunt
• It means being what we already are in Christ…unleavened
• We would not be scared of the repercussions of being rejected by man, but be fearful in being rejected by God
Application Points
• Unleavened (10)
• It should also remind us of the purpose of rejection of such sinful lifestyles and the separation thereof
• The purpose, the hope, is that they would see their need in Christ and repent
• There can be no reconciliation if we simply adopt such libertarian understandings of the world in our theology
• It is a reminder, also, that the corporate Church matters
• If people leave our congregations and feel no sense of longing to be part of that community, then there is something off with the community itself
• Is it possible that by being just like the world in these ways and adopting much of their views, by ceasing to seek holiness, those who leave have no reason to return because they find the same relationships outside of the Church?
Application Points
• Unleavened (11)
• We must be better
• We must be different
• If the world rejects us, so be it, it rejected Christ first
• So community, let’s do better to seek God
• We are who we are because of Christ
• If Christ is holy, then let us seek to be holy
• Let’s seek to honor Him in sincerity and truth
• Let’s seek to be what we are in Christ, unleavened for the glory of God
Application Points
• The Gospel of Christ
• Origins
• Fall
• Redemption
• Glorification
