WORD OF THE DAY:           BE A NEW LUMP"       Scripture references: I Corinthians 5:7        "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may      be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even      Christ our passover is sacrificed for us."        Here is a subject that could fill volumes. For the sake of brevity, without going      into all the details surrounding the Passover, the Passover lamb and all the symbolism      involved with the feast, (which included cleansing the temple, preparing       the lamb, bitter herbs and unleavened bread, blood etc), I will get      straight down to the meaning.   "BE A NEW LUMP" = renewed in spirit      1599 Geneva Bible Notes commentary says this about this passage:        "By alluding to the ceremony of the passover, he exhorts them to cast out that       unclean person from among them. In times past, he says, it was not lawful for those       who celebrated the passover to eat leavened bread, insomuch that he      was held as unclean and unworthy to eat the passover, whoever had but      tasted of leaven.      Now our whole life must be as it were the feast of unleavened bread, in which all      they that are partakers of that immaculate lamb which is slain, must      cast out both of themselves, and also out of their houses and      congregations, all impurity. By lump he means the whole body of the       Church, every member of which must be unleavened bread, that is, be       renewed in spirit, by plucking away the old corruption."   I Corinthians 5:8      Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven,      neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness;       but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.      1599 Geneva Bible Notes:      "Let us lead our whole life as it were a continual feast, honestly and uprightly."   One bad apple spoils the barrel.

Many of us have been removed from a congregation unjustly, with this verse  used as a justification  for it. Some of us were removed because  we did  not  believe  the dogma  and  commandments of men. This  record, however, is alluding to removing people within the congregation who habitually practice wickedness. It alludes to removing the impurity, cleansing the  temple, or putting off the old and putting  on the newness  of life that is  in Christ. It specifically refers  to cessation  of incestuous  relationships  and  fornication, which are extremely wicked practices.

     Lets put off the old and put on the new!
     Jesus, the Lamb of God, was sacrificed for us.
      Let's live for Him.

      After all, if we are going to be a "lump" let's be a new lump!

Amen.

-Carol Kenreigh

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c. 2001 Carol Kenreigh All rights reserved.