"Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?" (1 Corinthians 5:6)
Leavening is not needed in large amounts to sufficiently puff up the bread. The common ratio is just 1%. If you’ve ever baked with yeast, you know that a small 10g packet can cause the entire loaf to rise—and it flavors the whole loaf as well. Yet what was "rising" in the church at Corinth was not something good. It was sin.
Just one member, living in sin. The particular sin in this case was fornication. But just as there are different leavening agents, some more powerful than others yet all sufficient to get the job done, so will any sin do in infiltrating the church. This sin had begun at home, but it had already started to ferment in the church. "And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned" (v. 2).
We are always tempted to think that our private sin is personal and does not affect others. Nothing could be further from the truth. Think of Achan—one man stole from God, and thirty-six other men paid the consequence. His entire family also fell under the same judgment. Think of the case in this text—one sinner living in sin, yet the letter of instruction and rebuke is addressed to the whole church. Think of Adam, our first human father. He was just one man, yet look at how much damage came from his seemingly small act of disobedience. Truly, "One sinner destroyeth much good" (Ecclesiastes 9:18).
So What Do We Do?
If we are a church, we confront the sin head-on. But this devotion is for individuals, not churches. So how do we cast out sin from our lives?
We bring it to the light. We face it head-on. No matter the pain we may feel in the process of removing it, we must expose it and let it die.
"If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:6-9)
Are We Glorying in Our Sin?
The church at Corinth was. Perhaps they weren’t openly or verbally thanking God for the sin in their midst, but by keeping it and continuing on as if nothing was happening, they were, in God’s eyes, glorying in it. Why else would they just live with it?
Many people spend years living in pride, refusing to break it, protecting it at all costs—they are glorying in it. Many go years indulging their minds and flesh, with no confession, no repentance—they are glorying in it. The church at Corinth went on as if nothing had happened. And what was behind this? Pride. "Ye are puffed up!"
Pride is often the one thing that stands between us and repentance. It has been the hurdle that has kept millions of sinners from redemption.
Brother, sister, do not let pride keep you from confession and from casting out the sin that is permeating your life. Do whatever you must.
"Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." (James 4:9-10)
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