A Different Kind of Bread for Christmas by crw

1 Corinthians 5:7b -8, "For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

When the subject arises about mid-October concerning the place where your family is to celebrate the Christmas holiday, are your thoughts taken to a place where worship and speaking on the Incarnation are as much a tradition as eggnog and gift giving, or do you say under your breath, "Oh no, here we go again"? Many approach the holiday with the dread expressed in the latter. For it's just reality for so many of us that the festivities surrounding every holiday season are marked by "malice and evil." Brothers acting prideful with one another. Sisters gossiping. Parents spending beyond their means and children having their materialistic desires fulfilled. Families eating, drinking, laughing; living for the moment and ignoring matters of eternity; ignoring the LORD who calls all men everywhere to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ of the manger, cross, and the tomb. So, how should we, as those called out to be ambassadors of Light, approach and prepare for this time entrusted to us with family and friends? Prayerfully? Certainly. Lovingly and resolved to forgive when wronged? Undoubtedly. Evangelistically? Beyond question. How many in just my small family have suppressed the truth of God in unrighteousness and continue to do what is right in their own eyes?
Here in 1 Cor. 5, Paul is instructing these brothers and sisters that when they do celebrate gospel realities reflected in holidays like Christmas, there is a manner in which they are to do it--with sincerity and in truth. Within the Corinthian context, there were certain persons in the church that were not very sincere in their professions, nor were they living lives in step with the gospel because they were engaged in rampant immorality. The call was not only for discipline of certain members, but purity within the body of Christ.
We must take note of God's words to us through the apostle. "Sincerity" conveys the idea of clearness or purity, which instructs us against any expressions of hypocrisy. If we do not pray, or do not love, or do not forgive, , or do not encourage one another with the word of God, or fail to share the claims of Christ over every life with others (when we have banked all our hope openly in the gospel) then hypocrisy is ours. Too, the "bread of...truth" is to characterize our gatherings and celebrations. Truth in the occasion. Truth in relationships. Truth in who we are, who we once were, who we will be; and all that in relation to the lowly Lamb who was born to die for those who once loved "malice and evil." What kind of bread are we eating?