It's Time for a Cleanout
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6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?
7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
8 Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Title; Pray
It’s Time for a Cleanout
It’s Time for a Cleanout
Recap: Earnestly desire; unity; build a foundation; learn to chew; trusted stewards
This week: Paul’s long discourse about conduct, context, and confusion
Next week: Expression of Spiritual gifts, but first we must cover this idea of conduct, context, and confusion…
What at first glance seems to be a long excerpt about sin is actually a single continuous thought, setting the stage for the final point that Paul makes about the conduct of the members of the church both in life and the expressions of the gifts.
It is the same point Paul starts with in chapter 1 when he appeals to unity.
It is the same point he makes in chapter 13 in the middle of his discussion about spiritual gifts.
And it’s the same point he concludes with in chapter 16 when he says,
14 Let all that you do be done in love.
Problem in Corinth: there was a division there that was largely rooted in pride.
1 Corinthians 5:6 (NASB95)
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?
That’s why Paul takes so much time throughout this letter speaking of humility and unity, because they were divided by pride.
28 and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,
29 so that no man may boast before God.
31 so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
3 for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?
7 For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
18 Now some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.
2 You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.
And now Paul says your boasting is not good!
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?
7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
8 Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Paul is saying, all it takes is a small bit of pride or malice, or wickedness to begin a process of negativity that can infect the whole lump.
A little negativity can breed more negativity…
We must be careful to hold strictly to sincerity and truth, eradicating from amongst us negativity and malice.
These things, when left unchecked will result in small problems becoming larger problems…
What was a small thing when left to fester with the negativity associated with pride and malice eventually gives rise to a larger situation that could’ve been avoided if it had been dealt with while it was small.
I can’t tell you how many church problems I have been told about that have real emotion attached to them, but when you start asking questions to get to the root of the issue, you find out that the root was a small thing that was left to fester…
Well I used to sit by them every Sunday, but I saw them in the walmart parking lot and they walked right by me like they didn’t even know who I was… How dare they only say hello in church. I always knew they were fake anyway.. That’s why I don’t go to that church anymore because that whole church is full of fake people. I don’t even like to go to that side of town any more all them stuck up bunch of no good....
When the truth is they walked by you because the sun was in their eyes and they didn’t see you; and by the way, you didn’t say anything either....
If you had just asked them what happened, this whole thing could have been resolved in a minute, but now you’ve gotten caught up in a spiral of bitterness and resentment…
That’s what happened to the Corinthians.... That’s why the next thing Paul talks about is their lawsuits against each other…
It started with a bit of division and now they are suing each other in the courts, swindling each other, and using each other…
Because they believed they had rights… And they were proud of those rights…
But here’s what paul says of those rights:
12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.
All things are lawful for me… I have a right to do many things… but not all of those things are profitable.
He says it again in chapter 10:
23 All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.
In other words, just because you have the right to do it, doesn’t mean it’s good for you!
I have a right to eat as much sugar as I want, but that right doesn’t keep me from getting diabetes.
Explain Paul’s example using food sacrificed to idols
8 But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat.
9 But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
So he says, it makes no difference whether you eat it or don’t eat it.
Let me say it more clearly: this is one of those things that it is not a sin for you to do… unless it causes your brother to stumble…
There are things that are blatant sins....
Murder.
Adultery.
Theft.
Lying.
But then there are things that the bible does not give a direct instruction about. These are often the things that we continuously debate over…
Clothing… Using tobacco… One that is a hot topic right now: using cannabis… Drinking alcohol…
In times past it was: Going to the movies… Rock and Roll music…
There are even things Paul says are his opinion and not a command from God.
8 But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat.
17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Paul says, on an individual level, these things neither qualify nor disqualify your relationship with God, BUT…
9 But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
Liberty = right (literal translation)
You may have the right in your own conscience. You may be ok with God and doing what you do, but if your actions cause a brother to stumble in their conscience, you’ve sinned against the brother!
12 And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
So Paul’s suggestion is this:
13 Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.
Paul goes on to say I have a right to do many things in this life, but rather than take advantage of that right,
23 I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.
We aren’t asking how close can we get and still be okay, we are running this race toward the throne of Grace and away from the trappings of sin…
24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.
I want to get to the end of this race and know that along the way I did everything I could to bring as many as I could with me…
23 All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.
24 Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor.
This life isn’t just about you… One thing that our culture has engrained in us is that we are the hero of our own story, but that’s not how the Christian walk is defined…
This walk isn’t about us, it’s about Him and if His love compels us, that means it’s about them…
31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
I am often asked the question, can Christians drink alcohol or smoke weed or smoke tobacco or dip snuff or chew and my answer is this scripture…
Whatever you do whether you eat or drink, do it all to the glory of God....
Does the thing you’re asking about bring Glory to God? If it doesn’t, don’t do it.
Notice the question was not does it dishonor God… It was does it bring Glory to God…
It was the pride of the Corinthians that told them they could exercise their “rights” without consequence…
It’s the pride of religion that would rather argue than edify....
If we are going to see the gifts used amongst us, we must abandon pride at all costs…
We must base everything we do around God and His glory…
If He chooses to pour out a spiritual gift on you, it does not make you a different category of Christian…
If God can speak through a donkey in the old testament, he can still use one today, so be careful when pride tries to come in and tell you that you’re some kind of elite Christian because God used you to speak… You might just be the donkey of the day…
Here’s what I see that was happening in the church at corinth… God was moving in spite of them…
I don’t want God to move in spite of us. I want to be a clean vessel, willing and ready to be used without tainting what He is trying to do…
And the only way we are going to accomplish this is by doing what Paul suggested when we began:
7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
8 Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Clean out the old.
Clean out the malice.
Clean out the wickedness.
Clean out the pride.
Clean out the jealousy.
Clean out the grudge you’ve been holding…
Clean it out.
Clean it out.
Clean it out.
Altar Call: God help me clean out that which does not bring Glory to You.