INSIDIOUS!
Gal
5:7-9
7
Ye
did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
8
This
persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.
9
A
little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
While
strolling through Wal-Mart last night, my wife noticed that the “religious” section
had been removed from the books department. They used to have Bibles and
religious literature available in a small section of that department but it was
no longer there. As we passed the media center it seemed that the ambient music
was designed to drive customers from the store. The alcoholic beverage section
had enlarged. I said to my wife that it was “insidious!” She asked what I meant
and I said that “bad becomes worse and worse becomes even worse.”
The
actual definition of “insidious” is: “intended to trap or beguile;
stealthily treacherous or deceitful; operating in a seemingly harmless way but
actually with grave effect.”
Jesus
likened this to yeast mixed into the bread dough. Just a
spoonful of leavening will work its way through the entire batter of dough. It
puffs it up and changes the flavor and texture.
Our
culture, and even our churches, are suffering an insidious moral decline. All
the boundaries have been shifted. “Not-too-bad” has replaced good as the moral
starting point. Bad is now normal. Isaiah pronounced a woe upon his time and
culture for the very same thing.
Isa
5:20
20
Woe
unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and
light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
1
Cor 2:16b
16 But we have the
mind of Christ.
Adam
Clarke says
of First Corinthians 2:16: “He has endowed us with the same disposition, being
born again by his Spirit; therefore we are capable of knowing his mind and
receiving the teachings of his Spirit.”
Dear
Lord, I am touched by the leaven of my culture. I too am puffed up and my
texture and flavor have been changed. Give me a discerning heart and a
determined spirit. Help me to be pure in a world of sin. AMEN
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