01-11-26

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
January 11, 2026
The Apostle Paul writes in 1st Corinthians 5:6-8, 

“Your boasting is not a good thing. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, as you really are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

I just love the image Paul uses here—the importance of recognizing the potential impact yeast will have upon bread. Even just a little yeast leavens the whole batch, so depending on what kind of yeast is used, the batch will be shaped entirely by that yeast. And so if the yeast is that of malice and evil, you can guarantee that the bread will take on the essence and form of that yeast. What God has given us in the liberating act of Christ, or what Paul calls the "paschal lamb,” is the yeast that shall form our lives with sincerity and truth. Remember, just a little yeast leavens the whole batch. We must be diligent in cleaning out the unhealthy and destructive yeasts that are so prevalent in our world today.

Help me to use the yeast of your grace and love within my life, Lord. Allow it to expand and shape something amazing and life-giving within me. This I pray in the name of the one who is the bread of life. Amen.