The car ahead brakes abruptly, causing you to barge into it.
The driver behind you, trying to dodge the mayhem, instinctively swerves and crashes into yet another vehicle.
Within minutes, there are multiple collisions, blaring horns, dented vehicles, agitated motorists, scattered shards of broken glass, and stalled traffic.
One person’s mishap, the first domino to fall, sparks off a trail of damage, affecting many lives.
Sometimes all it takes is a small, puny misalignment before the wheels come off.
A Dash of Leaven
“You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” (Galatians 5:7-9)
The Galatian church had started well,
They delighted in the liberty Christ offered them, taking in lungfuls of it.
They sighed in relief because their justification was now through faith.
They were finally free from the burdensome law.
They were grateful for God’s reckless grace that brought them salvation.
All was fine and dandy until some false teachers sneaked in and shuffled their theology a little.
Not too much shuffling, just a tad.
“You are free, alright, but some aspects of the law are still important.”
“You need to observe special days and holidays under the Mosaic law.”
“Circumcision is the cherry on top; you need it to seal your salvation,” the interlopers offered.
Not wanting to leave anything to chance, the Galatians became restless.
They figured that Paul must have left out important details while teaching them about salvation.
They were zealous to go the whole nine yards. They would seal their salvation and put a sparkling bow on it.
So they yielded. Gullibly. Like a dog crawling back to its vomit.
They pieced back the loops of the chains that once bound them.
When the news reached Paul, He was gutted.
They had turned the gospel on its head, now seeking justification through the law!
They were implying that Christ died for nothing!
Infuriated, Paul could only conjure up two words to diagnose their plight.
Foolish and bewitched!
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? (Galatians 3:1)
They were now knee deep in filthy water,
All because they gave a bunch of rotten apples some wiggle room.
Paul explains that a little leaven works through the whole dough.
You don’t ever need cupfuls of yeast while baking bread. A little goes a long way.
A little influence from the false teachers had led them astray, totally knocking them off kilter.
In no time, Paul could barely recognise them.
Their level of contamination was nauseating
More Casualties
The Galatian church was not the only casualty of stealth contamination.
✍️Abraham lied twice that Sarah was not his wife.
The fib appeared harmless, convenient, clever even.
But it predisposed two hopelessly smitten men, Pharaoh and King Abimelech, to God’s wrath (Gen 12, Gen 20).
✍️Lots’ wife figured that one last wistful glance wouldn’t hurt. She immediately crystallised into salt
✍️In a moment of hunger, Esau sealed his future after swapping his birthright for bread and lentil soup.
✍️And wasn’t Uzzah acting responsibly? Reaching out to steady the ark of the covenant when the oxen pulling it stumbled? God struck him dead for handling the ark casually.
These were seemingly minor errors, small puny deflections from God’s standards.
Just a little dash of leaven sprinkled into a batch of dough.
But in God’s eyes, they were not trivial.
God’s standards for righteousness are higher than we like to admit!
In the New Testament, branding someone a fool predisposes you to hellfire (Mathew 5:22)
A lustful look at a woman equates to adultery (Mathew 5:28)
Do not underate sneaky little foxes, they can ruin a sprawling vineyard in the blink of an eye (Song of Solomon 2:15).
God Wants You Tethered
“Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:7)
God wants us tethered to His statutes, leaving no wiggle room for deflection.
He asked Joshua not to veer off to the left or right.
He doesn’t want us tripping over his statutes. He wants us firmly established, grounded.
Job was impressively tethered to God’s ways.
He was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.
He regularly went over his life with a fine-tooth comb, smoking out anything that had the slightest potential of offending God.
He offered burnt offerings for his children whenever they went on feasting sprees.
He made a covenant with his eyes not to look at any woman lustfully.
He zealously sealed all the cracks in his household, leaving no wiggle room for sin.
No leaven lingered near his batch of dough.
His uprightness caught God’s attention, because God is perpetually looking for men and women who are tethered to his ways.
“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him” ( 2 Chronicles 16:9)
God had found a man with undivided devotion.
He blessed the work of his hands and multiplied his possessions.
Job wound up as the greatest man in the East.
And that’s what God wants to do with you and me, to bless and elevate us
But are we harbouring small, seemingly harmless sins?
Are we hindering our elevation? Are our garments tainted?
Have we entertained slight deflections from the truth?
Are our lives bloated from the leaven we have taken in?
Is the image of Christ in us marred?
It’s time to clean up and toss away the leaven contaminating our lives.
It’s time to get tethered to God’s ways.
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