09
A Little Catalyst Will Do It
John Tilton1 Corinthians 5:6-8
Your boasting is not good.Don’t you know that a little yeastleavens the whole batch of dough?7Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.8Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
As Paul spoke about sexual immorality, he was very clear about two things that compounded and propagated the sin; boasting, or reinforcing the sin in a prideful way, and being shackled to the sin by way of their not ridding themselves of the sinful yeast in themselves. Thus, there would be a propensity to continue in sin due to the old yeast, or catalyst of sin remaining in them. He however encourages them to recognize what Christ had done for them to erase and cover our sin. He also encouraged them forthwith to keep the festival, or commemoration of what Christ did by ridding themselves of the old yeast or catalysts that would tempt and cause them to sin.
These words of realization, reality and renewal by and through Christ are spot on for me. I cannot give any acknowledgement or thought in satisfaction to my sins, and more so not make a conscious and intentional effort to clear and cleanse my mind of the catalysts of sin in my thoughts. My intent would be to stop when there is a sense of a sinful thought coming upon me, and immediately recall the price that Christ paid for my sin and my potential sin. Furthermore, to help prevent me from even getting to that point, looking to clear those external influences that can lead to sinful thoughts; whatever they may be in media, where I may be, who may be around, what I let linger around me and anything that can lead me astray. What are those subtle temptations that linger and lurk in my life?
Dear Lord, I pray for your guidance, awareness and strength to refrain from any satisfaction in my sin, but instead to be quick to feel a sense of remorse from recognizing what you, Christ have done on the cross because of my sin. May you show me the yeast in my life that I need to cleanse and clear. When thoughts do enter my mind, may I “bounce and renounce those thoughts and find festivity in what you did on the cross for me.”
