“And this is the basic law of the Temple: absolute holiness! The entire top of the mountain where the Temple is built is holy. Yes, this is the basic law of the Temple.” - Ezekiel 43:12
Paul was deeply saddened to hear of the state of the Corinthian church. Only a few years prior, he put his heart and soul into planting and building the church of Corinth. The church was strong and thriving, receiving new members weekly. Paul stayed in Corinth for over a year, preaching the Gospel and making sure the church had all the tools needed to continue with its upward trajectory. He left on another missionary journey to plant more churches elsewhere, believing that the church had solid roots. But not long after, Paul got the disturbing news that the Corinthian church had fallen prey to the sinful culture so prominent in Corinth.
You see, Corinth was a challenging city to build a healthy, biblical church. Corinth was shipping port where many sailors would come and go. It was home to twelve temples dedicated to other gods. The biggest of all these temples was Aphrodite’s temple, where the men would go and “worship” Aphrodite by engaging in sexual acts with priestesses [prostitutes.] It didn’t matter if these men were married or not. Now granted, Corinth was probably not much worse than any other city of Paul’s day, but regardless, any city that has an inflow and outflow of sailors daily and many temples dedicated to idol-worship is going to be challenging for any Christianity community to thrive.
So when Paul hears that the Corinthian church has started to allow sexual sin to take root, he is very concerned. He writes a letter to the church explaining that they must remove the man who is participating in this horrible sin:
“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father’s wife. You are arrogant, and didn’t mourn instead, that he who had done this deed might be removed from among you. For I most certainly, as being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has done this thing. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump?” - 1 Corinthians 5:1-6
In the letter, Paul declares that even the unsaved Corinthians were not engaging in sexual sin the way this church member was! He was incestuously living with his step-mom (*barf) and the church was totally cool with it. Not only were they cool with it, but they were even boasting about it! “Hey everyone! Look how accommodating, loving, and accepting we are of this man! Come to our church, too. It’s a safe space!” Doesn’t that sound familiar in our culture today?
You see, churches are never supposed to be accommodating to sin. Paul continues further:
“Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump? Purge out the old yeast, that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place. Therefore let’s keep the feast, not with old yeast, neither with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” - 1 Corinthians 5:6-8
Paul uses the analogy of yeast regarding the Passover celebration. However, if I may take some liberties, I would like to describe my own battle with yeast, or candida.
Candida is a naturally occurring yeast in your body. Everyone has it. Normally, it is completely harmless and even good for your digestion. The problem starts when candida gets to be overgrown in your system. You can get candida anywhere on your body. For me, I had far too much in my gut, and it caused me a lot of trouble since last year. Nearly every day after eating, I felt super sick. I would be lying in bed with a trash can next to me waiting to throw up. I was nauseous all the time, and was often running to the bathroom with an upset stomach. It pretty much ruined my life. At one point, I stopped eating out of fear and was emaciated. It took me a really long time to figure out that my problems stemmed from too much candida in my gut, caused from years of stress, unhealthy eating habits, and an unhealthy diet.
Once I discovered the problem, I took steps to begin healing. I am now in the process of “purging out the old yeast” [candida] by following a strict diet free from starches and sugars. I am slowly healing from candida, killing it off as much as I can so I can become a healthy person, free from this sickness.
I became ill because I allowed yeast to fester in my gut, and similarly, the church also becomes ill if “yeast,” or sin, is allowed to fester within its walls.
The Corinthian church allowed the yeast of sin to spread, instead of nipping it in the bud when they saw the problem arise. Paul says that they should have lovingly excommunicated the sinful man from their congregation, rather than boasting about how loving and tolerant they were. That man’s sin was causing other people to sin. Because if the church allows one sin, what’s wrong with a few more?
God calls His temple to be completely holy, not tolerant or accommodating of sin!
In the days of Ezekiel, God was sickened by the disgusting things His people were doing in His temple. They were worshipping other gods right alongside His resting place and engaging in all sorts of heinous acts inside His house! God told Ezekiel to show the Israelites their sin of disrespecting the temple, and He said:
“And this is the basic law of the Temple: absolute holiness! The entire top of the mountain where the Temple is built is holy. Yes, this is the basic law of the Temple.” - Ezekiel 43:12
This is the basic law of any house of God - absolute holiness. This is why we should never allow sin to grow in our church. He commands us to "purge out the old yeast" (the old sins that trip us up and others) and make way for a new way of living. We are called to have a church worthy of God’s Holy presence, just the way He commands and desires.
Questions:
Is there a sin you've seen your church turn a blind eye to for the sake of "tolerance"?
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