Infesting The Whole

Infesting the Whole

What’s the largest living thing in the world? A blue whale? An elephant? A giant sequoia tree? Those are all pretty impressive. But when it comes to massive living organisms by area of size, you won’t find anything bigger than a huge mushroom in the woods of eastern Oregon. No kidding. Although it is a fun-guy. Ha!

This fungus, the honey mushroom, extends over 2,384 acres, or about 1,665 football fields. The mushrooms are interconnected, genetically identical, and some would say, incredibly gross. The fungal jungle of mushrooms is estimated to be over 2,400 years old, based on its natural rate of growth. The fungus started small, but then grew unchecked in this remote area, eventually taking over the ground and damaging and killing trees.

If you think about it, sin can be like that mushroom growth. It can start small, spread wildly, and leave a path of destruction. In the Bible, sin is sometimes compared to yeast. Bread dough often requires yeast for the bread to rise. It takes only a little yeast to affect the whole loaf. Similarly, only a little sin, when left unchecked, will spread rapidly among a church.

In the New Testament, Paul rebuked the church in Corinth for letting sin spread like yeast through a batch of dough (see 1 Corinthians 5:6-7). Apparently, one man in particular was living rebelliously while the church did nothing. Paul’s advice was to treat him like unwanted yeast in bread. The man needed to be put out of the church. That might sound harsh, but at critical times we need to trust our church leaders to make the right decision for the whole body.

Daddy-Daughter Time

Talk about why Paul’s direction to the church at Corinth was important. If the church did what Paul asked, what would be the message to the rest of the body? As we see often in Scripture, Christians who battle sin (and that’s all of us) need to be humble and repent. Is there anything in your heart that’s keeping you from good fellowship in your family or church? Do you have any yeast in your life that needs to be removed? Ask God to help you deal with it.

What’s The Word?

Don’t you realize 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.   1 Corinthians 5:6-7