“Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. So let’s celebrate the feast with the unleavened bread of honesty and truth…” 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 CEB

There are passages of Scripture we read gladly, and there are passages we might prefer to move through quickly. Today's passage probably belongs in the second category.

Paul is addressing sexual immorality within the Corinthian church, and the particular situation is extreme. A man is living in a sexual relationship with his stepmother, and what troubles Paul almost as much as the behavior itself is that the church seems strangely proud of its willingness to tolerate it.

It would be easy for us to keep this passage at a comfortable distance. To say things like..."Those people were really messed up." Or to seize on the sexual nature of the sin and treat it as though Paul has permitted us to place certain sins in a category above all the others. Neither response lets the passage do its work in us.

Paul's concern throughout these opening chapters has been the spiritual condition of the church. The Corinthians have been dividing themselves around personalities, measuring one another by worldly standards, becoming impressed with their own wisdom, and getting "puffed up." Chapter 5 reveals another expression of the same problem. They have become so confident in themselves that they are tolerating behavior plainly inconsistent with the life of someone who belongs to Christ.

Sexual immorality is the immediate issue, and we shouldn't soften what Paul says about it. But neither should we pretend sexual sin is the only way the old life works its way back into the church. Later in the chapter Paul names greed, idolatry, abusive behavior, drunkenness, and cheating right alongside sexual immorality.

Sin is sin. That doesn't mean every sin has identical earthly consequences. It does mean none of us gets to read this chapter standing safely above the person Paul is confronting. We read it as people who have received grace. That changes the posture completely.

Paul gives us an image that helps us understand what he's driving at: leaven. A small amount works its way through an entire batch of dough. His concern isn't simply that one Christian has sinned. Christians sin, sometimes grievously. His concern is that the church has begun accepting what should lead to repentance.

There's a significant difference between welcoming sinners and celebrating sin. The Church must always be a place where broken people can encounter the grace of Jesus Christ. If sinners aren't welcome, none of us belongs there. But grace doesn't leave us where it found us. The Jesus who forgives us also calls us to follow him, and the Holy Spirit works within us to make us holy.

Paul takes us directly to the source of that grace: "Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed" (1 Corinthians 5:7). That's where this chapter must be read. Before Paul tells the Corinthians what needs to be removed from their community, he reminds them what Christ has already done for them.

They've been delivered. They belong to a new people. They're living on the other side of a new Passover. So Paul tells them to live like the people Christ has made them to be, celebrating this new life with "the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (5:8).

Holiness begins there. Not with Christians deciding we're morally superior to everyone around us, but with people who have been rescued by grace refusing to make peace with the things Christ is saving us from. And Paul draws an important boundary near the end of the chapter. He's not instructing Christians to police the morality of the surrounding world. "What do I care about judging outsiders?" he asks. God will deal with those outside the church.

Paul's concern is the integrity of the community that bears Christ's name. That's uncomfortable because it means Christian community requires more than friendliness. There are times when love must tell the truth. There are times when brothers and sisters in Christ need to call one another back toward faithfulness. There are even circumstances, as severe as the one in Corinth, when the Church cannot pretend that continuing openly in destructive sin is compatible with Christian discipleship. But we tread carefully here.

Church discipline without humility becomes self-righteousness. Truth without grace becomes cruelty. Grace without truth becomes permission to remain unchanged. We need both. And before we start looking for leaven in someone else's life, we should allow the Holy Spirit to search our own.

Where have I begun excusing something Jesus wants to transform? Where have I renamed compromise as freedom? Where have I quietly decided, "God doesn't really mind this"? Those questions may lead to uncomfortable places. But the One asking them is the One who has already given himself for us.

Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Grace has already acted. Now that same grace teaches us how to live as a holy people—together, humbly, truthfully, and always dependent upon the Spirit who is still forming us into the likeness of Christ.

Spend a few quiet minutes today asking the Holy Spirit to reveal one area of your life where you may have become comfortable with something God wants to change. Don't compare yourself with anyone else. Name it honestly before God, receive God's grace, and identify one concrete step of repentance or accountability you can take today.