“And you the arrogant! Puffed up with pride! Ought you not rather mourn?”
(1 Corinthians 5:2)

My father liked to think of himself as a culinary savant, a seasoned chef and a wizard at concocting new and exciting meals – – he loved experimenting with a variety of foods, recipes, spices, and sauces – – and his kids were his taste testers. Even when we didn’t want to be.

One particular quiet Saturday afternoon he decided to make a batch of his own homemade bread. He read a recipe out of an old Betty Crocker Cook Book he got for his wedding, and ascertained that he needed to go buy a packet of yeast to make the flour rise.

When he came home from the store, he took out a strip of active dry yeast from the grocery bag and mixed it in the dough. “Uh oh,” he whispered silently to himself. “What is the matter, dad?” My sister Tam asked. “Well, I was only supposed to use one of the packets and I put in all three.” After he rolled the batter into a ball and placed it in a mixing bowl over the warm oven, the dough started puffing up quickly like a ballon. It was really cool at first, but just like a balloon, the elasticity of the bread reached a point where it couldn’t expand anymore. Eventually, the whole batch collapsed in on itself – and there sitting in the bottom of the bowl was a sad sunken glob of gooey yuck. I pinched off a tiny bit and there was a pungent skunky taste to it. It was really bad. Into the trash can it all went.

As scripture says, “A little yeast spreads through the whole batch of dough”, and my dad’s failed attempt confirmed that a lot of yeast ruins the batch completely.

In God’s economy, yeast is his way to describe the workings of sin in the heart of man. It spreads, expands and if not stopped, ultimately ruins the whole person. I have been reading a chilling book for the past few weeks (it is my third time through it) called “Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin” by Cornelious Plantinga, Jr. My reason for picking this book up again was not for self-flagellation purposes, as a good Baptist is prone to do; but because I have found that the eradication of sin is one of Luke’s major themes throughout his gospel:

“Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come.” (Luke 17:1)

“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.” (Luke 24:47.)

Sin is a big deal. It is a big deal to Jesus, and it probably is the biggest deal in your life right now? In Plantinga’s book, he details just how insideous and damaging the spreading sickness of sin is. Not only does it pollute God’s beautiful world, and ruin his design for shalom, but sin doesn’t stop. It is relentless in it’s march to destroy. Like yeast, it keeps growing, expanding, and puffing up our human vices into monstrous, terrifying forms.

A man may opt to lie, spread innocent misinformation in order to avoid conflict or confusion. But if the tendency to deceive is not nipped at the bud, that same man will eventually be able to swindle himself. Lust indulged may bring the person small bursts of pleasure in the moment, but if not curbed, it can take over completely in the form of addiction. Lust matured turns into a gnawing worm that is never satisfied. I have known people to go from a ten-year-old peeking at soft-porn in their mother’s fashion magazine, to a full-blown 40-year-old Peeping-Tom staring in a neighbor’s window, late at night, sitting hidden on a branch in a tree. It is tragic.

But maybe the biggest batch of swelling yeast is found in the bloated, skunky bread of envy. I found this section of the book on sin quite terrifying. Listen to a few quotes:

“If we trace the fault line, we find that envy is a nastier sin than mere covetousness. What an envier wants is for another not to have it…To covet is to want somebody else’s good so strongly that one is tempted to steal it. To envy is to resent somebody else’s good so much that one is tempted to destroy it.”

“The envious vandal cannot let beauty, riches, or wholeness be. At his worst, he resents anything that is really healthy or flourishing. He’d veto heaven itself if he could – – if he can’t have heaven, he can at least raise hell in the lives of others. As Henry Farlie puts it, ‘What we are unable to achieve we will bring low...and instead of attacking winners directly, as last resort, we will attack the rules of the game.”

We see this all the time. It is currently playing out vividly in our politics. The elections have been like death for the losing side, and to admit loss is worse than hell itself. So to keep the germ of pride alive they are now attacking the system that allowed their ‘enemy’ to gain victory. “Hilary won the popular vote, Trump’s victory is a scam!” But that was never how the election game was ever designed to be played? The right betrayed their envy as well when Obama won by challenging his birth, denying his religious affiliation, and even questioning the legitimacy of his votes. Envy will see a shadow of conspiracy lurking behind every bush of truth.

God makes it very plain, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.” Envy turns the table on this where the sick man “Weeps when other’s rejoice and rejoices when other’s weep.” The cool German word for this is Schadenfreude, to relish in the misfortune of your foe. Envy is behind every gossip, back-biter, the wicked sneer, the foul-mouthed trash-talker, the grumbler, the victim, the pity-party and even the depressed house-wife who feels like a failure every time she sees smiling faces on Facebook and Instagram. Commercials prod and poke at envy, that is what gets you to buy. And as a society we are now awash in gender envy; if you are born a girl it’s not fair if you are excluded in the Boy Scouts. Envy is everywhere!

Envy unchecked brings hell to earth.

Sin never stops. But you can put a halt on it from growing in your life. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” There will always be a way offered other than giving into sin. This is the verse people use to say “God will not give you more (in suffering and hardship) than you can handle.” That is not true, in fact avoiding temptation may feel like death, but it is the one death that brings life every time. As God says in the Old Testament, “Those who honor me (and abstain from sin), I will honor.”

Hebrews says, “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” There is no excuse for you to give in. No excuse to want what your neighbor has, no excuse to hate your neighbor for having it. And no excuse for rejoicing when trouble befalls your neighbor and they end up losing it.

One last thought on sin: It is easy for celebrities, people at the club who just had a few drinks and even hunting buds in the blind to say, “Go ahead and sow your wild oats once in a while — that is what makes life exciting.” Those people have never been in a counselor’s office. Those people have never seen envy cause you to hate your spouse, or lust force you admit you have cheated, or lies that end up getting you thrown out of your job for twisting numbers or stealing from the register. Secrets shared in a pastor’s office are testimony enough to see how sin has truly come to kill, steal and destroy.

Stop sinning, will you? If you don’t, it will only grow.