A Great Reason NOT to Sin

1 Corinthians 5:6–7 (ESV) 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.

Paul is going to take a serious problem head on in 1 Corinthians 5. A man is sleeping with his father's wife. A sin so grievous, even the pagans are ashamed. This, in a culture were prostitution was more than legal and sexual immorality was common and accepted by all. To top it off, the Corinthians were proud about themselves while this was going on! Paul's question in verse 2 is probing, "Ought you not rather to mourn?"

Why should they be mourning while only one man is committing this sin? Because "a little leaven leavens the whole lump." In the Old Testament, when Passover came around, they had to completely clean their entire homes of all traces of leaven. It could not be found. The bread for the meal was as a wafer without any fullness to it.  It was a symbol of Christ - completely emptied of His glory and completely free from all sin.

So to foreshadow the perfect lamb of God and Bread of Life, the Jews had to rid their homes of leaven. 

Leaven spreads.
So does sin.

A great reason not to sin is because it affects more than just you. It affects your church. We like to think we can keep our secret sins and private faults to ourselves continuing on as if nothing is happening to our Church. How wrong we are. 

"A little leaven..." It doesn't take much to fill a church with problems and difficulties because of sin.  Cain had it wrong, we are our brother's keeper. And our actions affect the work God wants to do in our community.

The interesting example every church should walk away with from this passage is this - each local Christian community should be worried about the sin in THEIR community first... not what THAT OTHER church is doing wrong down the street. Don't point fingers until you've dealt with what's lacking in your own house.

Because the worst part of sin is this: It ruins the celebration we are to have in Christ. Every habitually sin-practicing Christian knows this. There can be no joy in our lives when we tolerate wicked behavior. 

Paul calls on them to deal with their sin.
Deal with it, and get back to the party.

PRAYER:
Father, search me. May my life not be a hindrance to the joyous festival of living in Christian community. Help me to be belligerent about the sins I tolerate that I might no longer tolerate them in myself.