It's Time We Became New Lumps

Remove this old leaven (yeast) from among us so that you will be a new lump (of dough). Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.~1st Corinthians 5:7

Definition of leaven: to mingle or permeate with some modifying, alleviating, or vivifying element

“One bad apple spoils the barrel.” These days produce is too expensive to purchase a bag of luscious looking apples only to get home and find one rotting and causing those around it to rot. It's the same with people. A person with a bad attitude likes to spread it to everyone around them.

The Passover practiced removing malice and wickedness in order to form a new lump of sincerity and truth. Is there someone around us with blatant sins that need confronting? Making ourselves into a new lump by taking a closer look at our own lives is really the objective. Ask yourself: Am I setting a negative example by being impatient? And do I want to have things my way all the time? Or do I have unrealistic expectations which cause me to have a judgmental attitude? These are just a few questions we might put to ourselves before judging others.

Therefore, I become a “new lump” if I will purge any attitudes or negative actions within myself before I go around criticizing others. I can always find something in me that needs adjusting but it is much easier to look outward at what others might be doing wrongly. We can always find someone doing something we perceive as wrong and spend our time being critical of them.

Instead of cleaning up our own messes, we prefer to focus on someone else's dirty little secret. There is always something in us that can be improved upon. Looking outward at other's faults is just such an example. Going around with a critical attitude tends to ruin all those around us and really needs to be taken care of within us first.

We have been given in scripture, in more than one location, the types of spirit and spiritual gifts that God would have us tend towards as we look at ourselves and the attitude we might have. And, you say, but this person really is doing something very wrong, very sinful in their life. Remember Christ refused to throw the first stone at the woman caught in adultery. I have always wondered where the man was that was caught with her. My view of a double standard but maybe he was judged differently by the elders of the church. See what I mean about being judgmental. It took very little for me to come up with that question and judge that man when it is not my place to know how God dealt with him and we know God did because adultery is one of those sins high on the list of sins that God hates.