PURITY
"Purge (clean out) the old leaven [sinful way of life] that you may be fresh (new) dough, still uncontaminated (as you are), for Christ, our Passover [Lamb], has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with leaven of vice and malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened [bread] of purity (nobility, honor) and sincerity and (unadulterated) truth" (1 Corinthians 5: 7,8AMP).
All of us human beings start out as sinners! We all, to some degree, are arrogant and, therefore, rebellious and disobedient to the will of God. But, when a person puts his faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of his sins, he begins a new life, a new way of thinking. We who are now Christ-followers, are to consider ourselves "dead to sin and alive to God" (Romans 6:11)! We begin to "put off" (like an old garment) the thoughts, words and deeds of the flesh (sinful nature) and "put on" the new which comes to us from God. No longer are we to indulge our fleshly selves or give into temptations or practice sin. We are done with that lifestyle! We are now focused on Jesus Christ, devoted to God. And, having been cleansed by the blood of Christ, we conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of Him.
The top priority of the "new life" is to stay clear of those things that displease and dishonor God: "immorality, impurity, indecency; idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger (ill temper), selfishness, divisions (dissensions), party spirit (factions), sects with peculiar opinions, heresies; envy drunkenness, carousing, and the like" (Galatians 5:19-21). We, now, adhere to the charge: "If we live by the (Holy) Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit--If by the (Holy) Spirit we have our life [in God], let us go forward walking in line, our conduct controlled by the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25).
© S.M. Hudson, Hidden Treasure Ministries, December 2003. All rights reserved.
Categories: forgiveness
