The Old Leaven of the World

Households of Faith – Principals of the Governmental Structure of the Households
Today’s Focus: Feast of Unleavened Bread: The Old Leaven of the World
Scripture:

Greetings Kingdom Citizens
Let’s get right into it! Leaven represents evil false doctrine and practices. What is the leaven that we must purge ourselves from?

Leaven of Herod
This is represented as the spirit of worldliness. This leaven presents itself as people who appear to be spiritual but are worldly at heart. These people speak all the things you want to hear and not what you need to hear. They speak for their benefit.

Leaven of the Sadducee
This is seen in people who do not believe in the spiritual or supernatural. Many people within the Body of Christ struggle with this leaven because they fail to understand the impact of the spiritual world on the natural world and hence they deny the existence of that world through rejection and some through ignorance. The Sadducees did not believe in the bodily resurrection but we know that the resurrection is the bedrock of our very faith and one of the principal doctrines of Christ (Hebrews 6:1-3).

Leaven of the Pharisees
This is represented as the spirit of hypocrisy. These people are people who expect you to follow them and do as they say but yet they do not do as they say themselves. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees many times for this because they would expect the people to follow their instructions but they would not follow their own. In the Kingdom of God, the message and the messenger must be one. There has to be integrity and the words that the messenger speaks must line up with the life the messenger lives. When these do not match, hypocrisy is evident and proper witnessing is not possible.

Leaven of Corinth (Corinthians)
The leaven of Corinth is the leaven of sensuality or the weakness in the area of one’s feelings. This refers to the things that appeal to the flesh. Some of those things are fornication, sexuality, adultery just to name a few. 1 Corinthians 6 and 7 speak about keeping sin from out of the body which we know is also a temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 7 speaks specifically on marriage and please understand that we should not allow the ways of the world into our marriage and especially the marriage bed. What I mean is, husbands and wives are not sex toys. Marriage in the bed is ministry between man and woman and it should be done properly as the Lord instructs. We should never allow the world (pornography and lust) into that sanctuary to satisfy the lust of the flesh.

Leaven of Galatia (Galatians)
This is the spirit of legalism. It is people who mix the Law with Grace. Now what these people tend to do is interpret the Old Testament and New Testament in their own way to fit their desires. One minute they say you should obey the Law of Moses and the next minute they say you are under Grace. Which one? Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Law. It is in Christ where the Law and Grace meet and now the Law is not written on stone tablets but in the hearts of men. Paul spoke explicitly to the church at Galatia about these very issues because they were trying to live under the Law and Grace and that cannot be. This is why we must be careful venturing through the Old Testament and understand the reality of the type and shadow God put forth with the children of Israel. We are under grace and God is revealing the truth behind those types and shadows.

These are just a few but the point is we must purge ourselves from these doctrines and ways of the world because you cannot enter the promise land with old leaven and still living in the ways of the world.

Peace, Love and Grace from the Father,
Calvin Calhoun, Jr.