Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
The Black Death, also known as the Great Plague, the Black Plague, was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia and peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351. The disease was carried by black ground rats, who migrated out of the dried out grassland in Central and West Asia.
Though rats are relatively small and unnoticeable, if unchecked, they can cause devastating destruction. Sin, can be as small as rats or yeast. If allowed to remain in our lives, can be potentially fatal, causing death to the purposes of God in our lives. Sin always gives opportunity to the enemy to bring far reaching destruction in wherever we allow it to remain. Sin inevitably defiles the whole.
In the dryness of the grassland, the deadly disease carriers were forced out. But they must be completely eliminated or at least not allowed to multiply in order for man to be spared from fatality. When sins are repented from and forgiven by God, their effects and curses must be purged as well. Individual repentance is vital for personal renewal. However, sins and traces of sins, must not be permitted to dwell in the corporate life of the Church. Just as little leaven (or yeast) affects the whole dough, so will compromise on sins and their effects defile the whole Church.
Holiness is more than just right behavior. It is right believing which will eventually lead to a lifestyle of trusting God for who He is, and trusting every word that comes forth from His mouth. Holiness is living life free from the “leaven” of sins in the individuals, and in the Church. Holy living opens the door to God’s miracles of supernatural grace and restoration. Compromise on holiness, death and destruction awaits us.
Today, choose to purge out every leaven of sins and their effects from every sphere of our lives.