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. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
1 Corinthians 5:7–8, ESV
As you read the Old Testament and the sacrificial means utilized in order for one to atone for sin, it is a blessing to know the forgiveness that we receive through Christ with the final sacrifice He made for us on the Cross. One facet of this forgiveness still remains, however. The sin that is atoned for is unintentional sin. Christ didn’t die for us to go out and willfully do things that are contrary to God’s will and God’s Law. When we willfully sin, it is an act against the very being of God and a rebellion against that which He has done for us. It is as if we are looking at Jesus on the Cross and spitting on Him as so many that were happy to see Him crucified. Paul is speaking to this as he is aware of a Christian brother that is willfully and unrepentantly engaging in a sinful with full knowledge of the assembly of believers. When a brother or sister in Christ is known to be caught in sin and willfully going against God, they are placing themselves at odds with God and could be lost in eternity because they are not seeking forgiveness but binding that sin to themselves by mocking God. It is not for us to condemn, but it is our calling to warn. Sin is the leaven that enters our faith. Just as when bread was offered to God in sacrifice, it could have no leaven, so are we to be as we offer our lives to God. Our confession removes the leaven within us, and we are restored and made clean and new. As we come before God at the altar and lay before Him the leaven in our lives, it no longer is within us. As faithful followers of Christ, we are called to help all come before God so that they may be made pure and holy in their confession and that no leaven remains among us as a people of God. In this, we, as His people, can walk in peace.
Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.