Avoiding Spiritual Leaven: Part 1

[Steve Myers] Pride can bring us down. We can get overconfident, we can have a sense that I'm better than you. And that was certainly a problem in the church in Corinth. Paul was writing to them and in Chapter 1...or in 1 Corinthians 5:6, he talks about this very fact where he tells them their glorying is not good, their pridefulness, how they thought they were better than others. And he told them they've got to get a handle on this sin, this is a major problem. And then he makes an interesting comparison and he compares the sin with leaven. And so leaven he uses here in this example representing sin. And of course you put leaven, you put this yeast into the bread dough and what happens? And so this is what Paul connects this glorying, this pridefulness to. He says, "Don't you know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?" 

So as a people, as a congregation, and even as an individual, just a little bit of sin, just a littlest bit, you know, you've seen those little packages of yeast, they are tiny, but you put just a little bit in that dough and what happens? It expands and grows till it's throughout the entire batch, and that's what Paul says. Listen, we better take this seriously. It might seem like a little thing, might not seem like much. But Paul begins this study by pointing to the very fact every one of us need to look at our lives and root out sin because like a little bit of leaven, if we don't get a handle on it, if we don't repent of that, it's going to completely engulf us just like it does bread dough. So we should remind ourselves, no casual attitude here, take it seriously, take it seriously. Recognize the fact that sin can spread, it can spread within our own selves, it can spread within our family, it can spread within the congregation. So, Paul says and reminds us, get rid of this, get a handle on it and don't allow sin to take hold like leaven.

That's BT Daily. We'll see you next time.