Should you ever unfriend a fellow Christian?

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TODAY’S SPECIAL: 1 Corinthians 5-6; Psalm 143

TO CHEW ON: “But now I write to you not to associate with any one who bears the name of [Christian] brother, if he is known to be guilty of immorality, or greed, or is an idolater—that is whose soul is devoted to any object that usurps the place of God—or [is] a person with a foul tongue (railing, abusing, reviling, slandering) or is a drunkard or a swindler or a robber. [No] you must not so much as eat with such a person” 1 Corinthians 5:11 AMP.

The church discipline Paul recommends here sounds a lot like the “shunning” that happens amongst, for example, the Amish. To us, living in our postmodern culture of individuality and permissiveness, this kind of treatment may sound extreme. I’ve heard of members of religious groups taking to court church officials who disciplined them in such ways.

However, tolerated sin is dangerous. Earlier in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul explains why, using the metaphor of leaven or yeast (which is almost always a type of sin in the Bible). Just like leaven grows to spread through an entire lump of dough, so, Paul says, sin left unaddressed soon permeates an entire congregation (1 Corinthians 5:6-7).

The Israelites were to remove leaven from their homes in preparation for Passover. So, Paul argues, these Christ-followers need to deal with the leaven of sin in their midst when they gather to celebrate Christ (“keep the feast”-[2 Cor. 5:8—Passover and/or the Lord’s Supper).

Paul’s list of leaven-type actions they needed to address didn’t end with the sexual immorality of two members. To immorality Paul added greed, idolatry, "foul tongue"*, drunkard, swindler, robber.


Two takeaway thoughts from this passage:
1. I ask myself (and all of us)  are we guilty of the leaven on this list? Could we be spreaders of leaven in our churches? Could our attitude toward possessions, accomplishments, goals etc. ever be characterized as greedy or idolatrous? What about speech. Do we ever rail, revile, abuse, or slander? Are we disciplined in eating and drinking? Are we honest?

2. If our church leadership doesn’t enact discipline, we need to guard our own relationships. Perhaps we should prayerfully consider separating ourselves from “brothers and sister” who live immorally, are greedy and worship the idols of possessions, accomplishments, prestige, leisure, whose speech is abusive and foul, who practice dishonesty.

PRAYER: Dear Father, help me to eliminate the leaven from my own life, and to guard my relationships with Christians who have slipped into a worldly lifestyle.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 143

* “Foul tongue” "Railing" (rail: to utter bitter complaint or vehement denunciation), and "reviling" (revile: to assail with contemptuous language, address or speak abusively - definitions from dictionary.com). 

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)

Is there leaven in our lives?

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TODAY'S SPECIAL: Mark 7-8; Psalm 98

TO CHEW ON: "Then He charged them, saying, 'Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.' " Mark 8:15

In a conversation that makes us smile because of its misunderstandings, Jesus warned the disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. The disciples thought He was talking about real bread—seen by their discussion amongst themselves (Mark 8:16).

But that wasn't it at all. What Jesus was really referring to is leaven as a metaphor. "Often the term has an evil connotation, that is, what is small may corrupt the whole," says J. Lyle Story in his notes on Mark (New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1364).

The leaven, or evil Jesus tells them to avoid here is that of the Pharisees and Herod. My Bible's notes suggest the leaven of the Pharisees is lack of faith so that ever more signs are needed, and the leaven of Herod is the worldly outlook of godlessness.

The meaning of leaven as a small thing that disseminates through the whole batch is borne out in other references to leaven. In 1 Corinthians Paul said, "Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?" Then he told the Corinthians to purge out the leaven of "malice and wickedness" - 1 Corinthians 5:6-8.

In Galatians Paul repeated the leaven proverb (Galatians 2:9) and warned readers about the leaven of returning to the bondage of the law (practicing and insisting on circumcision) as a way to earn salvation - Galatians 2:2-12.

These references to leaven as a small, seemingly insignificant thing that can corrupt the whole has me asking, might there be leaven in my life?

It could be some secret and unconfessed sin that saps my spiritual energy by its whispers: "You sinner! You have no right to spiritual power and success." Or it could be an attitude like the fear of man, or a lack of faith that the Bible is really truth, or pride that says, "I would never do that" and then sits in judgment on others. It could be any number of things—bits of leaven that eventually affect every part of life and ministry.

PRAYER: Dear God, please help me to discern the leaven in my life and, with the help of Your spirit, rid myself of it. Amen. 

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 98

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Obedience—just because He says so

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TODAY’S SPECIAL: Exodus 12:15-28

TO CHEW ON: “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.” Exodus 12:15

Have you ever entered a contest? What was the first thing you did before you prepared your entry and perhaps the last thing before submitting it? Study the guidelines? Read the rules?

Though a contest’s rules may seem arbitrary, we know that to have our entry considered for the prize, it must follow those rules. We don’t question the contest administrator’s right to make rules, debate them, or argue with them. Instead we comply, simply because the rules say so and if we break them, our entry will be disqualified.

In a way God’s prohibition about leaven may have seemed senseless and arbitrary to the Israelites. Yet here and throughout much of the Bible, leaven has a bad reputation.

What is leaven? The Bible Encyclopedia explains:

Literally:

”Bread was made to rise by putting a piece of sour dough from a previous batch of dough in the flour, which dough in turn brought on fermentation of the whole. Leavened bread was a regular part of the diet of ancient Israel (Hos 7:4).” (Bible Encyclopedia accessed through Biblegateway.com.)

Historically: Leaven had a special significance at Passover when leaving it out refreshed the Israelites’ collective memory of leaving Egypt in such a hurry they had no time to add it to their unbaked dough.

Figuratively leaven is mentioned several times in the Bible and usually gets a bad rap:

• Jesus used leaven in His parables to illustrate the undesirable teaching of the Scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 16:6,11,12) and the pervasiveness of the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 13:33—and one of, if not the only time leaven is viewed positively).

• Paul used leaven to illustrate the pervasiveness of evil (1 Corinthians 5:6) and the power of a little evil to contaminate the whole (1 Corinthians 5:6; Galatians 5:9).

Back to our Israelites, God’s harsh pronouncement on those who were careless about destroying leaven ("that person shall be cut off from Israel") reminds us of how God was (and is) a God of details. He wanted careful obedience, whether the thing made sense or not.

It reminds us too of the enormity of what Jesus did for us when He gave His life for us so we no longer need to be bound by these ceremonial rules.

Yet the principle of obedience remains. There are some things that God has said which we may not understand. But we obey anyway, just because He said so.

PRAYER: Dear Father, please help me to obey You as carefully as I follow contest guidelines to win a fleeting, earthly prize.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The leaven of hypocrisy

Saul tears Samuel's robe - Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1851-1860)

TODAY'S SPECIAL: 1 Samuel 15:10-31


TO CHEW ON: "Then he said,'I have sinned, yet honour me now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord your God.'" 1 Samuel 15:30.

Saul was an ancient Pharisee in that he was a hypocrite. He wanted Samuel to attend the sacrifice with him in front of Israel's elders as if nothing was wrong, even though Samuel had just caught him in a bold-faced lie and told him that God had rejected him as king.

[Hypocrisy: The pretense of having feelings or characteristics one does not possess; especially the deceitful assumption of praiseworthy qualities - Funk & Wagnalls Standard College Dictionary.]

The ancients were well acquainted with hypocrisy. Note this vivid description of a hypocrite:

"The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart; His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords" Psalm 55:21.

Jesus' hypocrisy meter clicked fast and furious whenever a Pharisee was around. For example there was the day He was invited to dinner at a Pharisee's home and He neglected the ceremonial washing. His host "...marveled that He had not first washed before dinner." Jesus responded: "Now you Pharisees, make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness" - Luke 11:37-39.

Jesus called the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees "leaven" (yeast) (Luke 12:1). We know how yeast acts. It starts out small and isolated, but gradually grows and expands to permeate the whole lump of dough. Jesus was in effect saying that everything the Pharisees did was infected with hypocrisy.

Other New Testament references to hypocrisy show us how it can infect us too.

• Jesus warned about the temptation to do even our religious practice (like giving and praying) with a view to impress. But God who sees us through and through is not fooled (Matthew 6:2-6).

• James talks about the hypocrisy of partiality as we defer to those among us who appear wealthy and influential while ignoring the person who is humble and poor (James 2:1).

• John warns about generally thinking of ourselves as better than we are and without sin, and thus self-deceived and separated from God (1 John 1:8-10).

The picture of hypocrisy as leaven sticks with me. How subtly it comes in. How silently it grows. How widespread it becomes. Is there any of that yeast in my life? In yours?

PRAYER: Dear God, please alert me to the hypocrisy in my life. Help me to recognize it and get rid of it, just like the Israelites rid their homes of leaven before feast days. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.