“Your boasting about this is terrible. Don’t you realise that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth.”
1 Corinthians 5:6-8 NLT
Imagine the scene. Here is a man openly sinning by having a sexual relationship with his stepmother, and, worse, the church in Corinth accepts it. There is no censure. No attempt to put things right. Perhaps the leadership in Corinth thought that they were being “progressive”, following a convoluted logic based on God’s grace and forgiveness. But whatever their thoughts, having such an open, sinful display was not only accepted but also boasted about. In the Churches of Scotland and Wales today, there is a similar situation, with people of certain sexual orientations and practices being not only accepted, they have also been appointed to church leadership roles. So we have a lesbian bishop in Wales and a gay minister in St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, and these are supposedly Christian churches in Christian denominations. Such sin exposes the wickedness in the hearts of mankind, a situation little different from the world just before the Flood. We read about the situation then in Genesis 6:5-6, “The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart”. That poignant picture of God’s heart breaking through the extent of man’s sin and wickedness has always touched me greatly. Aren’t we grateful that God made a covenant with Noah, as we read in Genesis 9!
But back to Corinth. Paul admonished the Corinthians for boasting about their acceptance of the sinning man in their church, and such boasting even reached Paul’s ears. People must have been so scandalised about what was happening in Corinth that they found Paul and told him what was happening. We can just about imagine that it broke his heart as well. So, Paul put pen to paper and sent this letter to the church in Corinth, and he didn’t pull any punches. Of course, he didn’t spew vitriolic anger onto the paper, but set out his concerns in a measured and loving way. And he reminded the Corinthians that if they let sin into the church it is like yeast in a batch of dough. As any baker knows, the dough becomes infused with the yeast solution and starts to rise. Great when the yeast is “good” yeast, but if the yeast is bad, then the whole batch of bread will be bad as well. This is a good analogy about what was happening there, and one that equally applies to our churches in the UK today. Sadly, those Christian communities that condone sin will eventually wither and die, because, as Jesus said to the church in Ephesus, their love of Him had grown cold. “Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches” (Revelation 2:5). If Jesus removes His lampstand from a church it means that His presence won’t be there anymore, and instead the congregation becomes a religious club. Yes, it might survive for a while, but it will eventually close down. But the encouraging news is that there is still a Christian church in Corinth, claiming roots all the way back to Paul’s foundation in the first century. Paul’s letter must have contributed to their future.
The question that we pilgrims have to ask ourselves concerns the church or fellowship that we attend, and also our role and influence within it. Two important factors that are both concerned with yeast. Paul’s analogy about yeast and dough is based on the impact that sin has in both the life of a believer and the life of their congregations. We have to start by examining ourselves. David, the Psalmist, wrote, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life” (Psalm 139:23-24). Paul also wrote on a similar theme, “Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5). And one more verse from 2 Peter 1:10 in the Amplified version, “Therefore, believers, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you [be sure that your behaviour reflects and confirms your relationship with God]; for by doing these things [actively developing these virtues], you will never stumble [in your spiritual growth and will live a life that leads others away from sin]”. We pilgrims have to realise that if there is any sin within us, visible or secret, then we are in danger of introducing bad yeast into the “dough” of our church. Such sin might not be what we first think of in terms of the sexual mayhem happening in Corinth, but it might be the little things, such as how we conduct ourselves in the meetings, or how we respond to the other believers there. Do we complain and quarrel? Do we “roast the preacher” on a Sunday afternoon after church? Do we generally undermine the work and witness of the church, quenching the Holy Spirit in the process? If we find ourselves doing such things, then it is essential that we get before God in repentance and sort out our attitudes and behaviour.
Secondly, we must always be on the guard for any sin that is creeping into the church we attend, always doing what the Berean Christians did. We read in Acts 17:11, “And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth“. If we are uncomfortable about a message preached from the pulpit, then we must diligently look for the answer in the Bible, which is our final arbiter. Sometimes, however, we will hear a message that seems ok, but even then still doesn’t sit easily with us. In such a case, we leave it on the “back burner” and ask God for confirmation through His Spirit.
Jesus taught much about the Kingdom of God, of which we pilgrims are a part. It is coming, and nothing will stop it. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day failed. The liberal and “progressive” bishops and ministers of today will be equally unsuccessful in frustrating its coming, even though they have no idea that that is what they are attempting to achieve. Luke 13:20-21, “Again [Jesus] asked, ‘What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about thirty kilograms of flour until it worked all through the dough’”. Slowly but surely, regardless of attempts by the devil, the world, and even the church to stop it, the Kingdom of God is growing throughout the world just as yeast permeates and penetrates its way through the batch of dough. One day, the process will be complete, and then we will experience the End of the Age. Will that be in our lifetimes? We don’t know, but we must be ready. Our lamps must not be allowed to run out of metaphorical oil. Ever.
Dear Father. Your Kingdom will prevail, and we pray for the stamina and resources we need to stand firm to the end. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 