The Danger of a Little Yeast

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

1 Corinthians 5:6-8 NIV

In this passage, Paul specifically discusses how the church should deal with a man who was in a sexual relationship with his stepmother. The church seemed to be proud of their tolerance of this. But Paul was appalled and instructed them to remove this man from their fellowship. His continuing presence and influence would be like yeast in a batch of dough. It would spread throughout the whole body, corrupting everything it came into contact with.

Yeast in My Life

But what he says here is just as true in my personal life. I might view some sin in my life as being only a small and harmless action. Not that big of a deal. And certainly not something to get all worked up over. But there is a real danger in that attitude. Sin in my life is like yeast. It starts small. But as I get more comfortable with its presence, it will grow. Little by little, it creeps into more and more of my life. And the more it does, the more accepting I become of that sin in my life. And the further I drift away from my Lord and the holy life I am called to live.

The solution is to follow Paul’s instruction here and not allow sin to have a place in my life. Never become comfortable with anything less than a fully committed heart and mind. Do not give the devil a foothold (Eph. 4:27).