Sunday, February 24, 2019

February 24



”You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.”  (Galatians 5:7-9)

The Galatians had been saved by grace. Now heresies had infiltrated their fellowship, people who preached that you needed to do certain good deeds in order to be adequate in God’s sight. And here is Paul teaching them about the freedom they have in Christ. He corrected them and reminded them of their freedom and warned them not to allow the yoke of slavery be put on them again.
Then he says the dramatic words that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. We sometimes feel that a small sin really doesn’t matter. But in this passage, Paul seriously warns us of compromising with sin.
At a women’s conference I once watched a good illustration of this. The woman who was teaching asked for a bottle of pure water. Someone entered the room with a bottle of pure and clear water. Then she asked someone else to go and fetch water from the toilet. A woman entered the room with a bottle of muddy water. The female teacher then poured a few drops of the muddy water into the bottle with the pure and clear water. Immediately the whole content of the bottle was soiled and nobody wanted to drink of that water.
God wants us to serve him whole-heartedly and without compromises. He wants us to be ”the unleavened bread” – ”the pure water”. Only then will others want to come close and eat of the living bread, Jesus, and drink from the same source as we do.

Prayer
Lord, help me today to live in the freedom, which You have bought to me – the freedom that is called Grace. Help me to prevent things that are impure from infiltrating my life – things that soil the pure and real life I have in You.

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