INSIDIOUS!

 

Wednesday, May 29, 2024

 

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, 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