The Leaven Of Immorality

"A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough" (Galatians 5:9). So writes the apostle Paul in a circular letter to the believers in the Roman province of Galatia. The analogy is clear, especially to those of us who bake bread. It doesn't take much yeast to make a loaf of bread rise. Likewise, it does not take many agitators to start a riot and it takes a relatively small number of people in a community to influence it for evil or for good. Examples abound.

In the congregations of Christians the same apostle began in Corinth, there was a man who had taken his father's wife (1 Corinthians 5:1-5). This was clearly an immoral sexual act, strictly forbidden by Holy Scripture (Genesis 49:4; Leviticus 18:8; Deut. 22:30, etc.). The Corinthian culture would not forbid such an act, filled as it was with the worship of many gods. The Corinthian Christians were influenced by their culture and had begun to feel their broad minded approach to sexual acts was the most loving, even if it was forbidden by ancient Israel's code of ethics. Paul pulls them up short with his analogy. "It won't be long," he warns, "before such thinking will influence your views on marriage, divorce, fornication, adultery and many other immoral acts. You must act at once. This man and his so-called wife are unrepentant. Make it clear by word and action that they are no longer welcome in your midst. Purge the leaven from the dough."

If you've paid attention and have been around more than a couple decades, you have surely noticed how the same thing is happening among modern Christians. Step by step, year by year, our views on sexual immorality have changed—and with them our views on marriage, home and family. As a Christian pastor I have noticed that a young couple planning marriage is exceptional that has not been sleeping together for some time and/or living together.

"Oh well, they are planning to get married, you know. And maybe it's best if they find out if they're compatible before they do get married. Besides, they don't plan to have children right away and have  been taking precautions." So we join the culture and rationalize the tragic erosion of Biblical ethics, ignoring almost everything that God's Word teaches about the meaning and purpose of the sexual relationship, marriage and family in the name of broad minded love.

The Lord Jesus warned his disciples by using the same analogy. Ignore the teaching of God's Law about the Christian life and obedience to the will of God and it will not be long before you deny the same Scripture's teaching about the Gospel and the person and work of Jesus Himself. "Watch and beware of the leaven of the legalistic Pharisees and the broad-minded Sadducees," he warned (Matthew 16:1-12).

The 40-day Lenten season we are about to enter is an excellent time for us to examine carefully our faith in Christ's sacrificial death upon the cross for us and our commitment to take up our own cross-responsibilities to follow Him.

Influence, C. S. Lewis and Sadhu Sundar Singh

In recent days I've shared with you the source of the pride-filled Nazi emphasis upon the supposed Aryan race. The word Aryan comes from the ancient Sanskrit arya and initially referred to those who spoke northern India languages. I've also commented about the influence of C.S. Lewis in my life. 


Now today I stumbled upon Sadhu Sundar Singh, an Indian holy man and convert to Christianity who lived and taught around the world in the early years of the twentieth century. Kathryn Lindskoog suggests he had a strong influence upon C.S. Lewis. 

Commenting upon Lewis'  reference to the Sura in That Hideous Strength, Lindskoog asks, "What did Lewis mean by the term Sura? In Sanscrit the word means god. In the Hindu pantheon, a sura is a good angel or genie. In Arabic a sura is one of the 114 chapters of the Koran. Lewis must have known all this when he chose the word. I believe that Lewis used the word sura because he was hinting at the word sadhu, which means a holy man in India. (As an adjective in Sanscrit, sadhu means straight.) If Lewis had actually called his Christian mystic the Sadhu, some readers might have believed that his tale was a true account about the famous Sadhu Sundar Singh.

A bit further in her article Lindskoog continues, "Sundar Singh may have influenced C. S. Lewis in several ways. For example, the name Singh comes from the Sanskrit word for lion. Because Sundar Singh was popularly perceived as the most Christ-like man in Lewis's day, it is possible that Sundar Singh was in the back of Lewis's mind when Aslan the lion came bounding into Lewis's first story of Narnia. (Aslan is the Turkish word for lion.)"

How many of us have been influenced by Lewis? And in recent years how many have loved the tales of Narnia, both in their written form and now as movies? The number reaches into the millions I am certain.

How strange and wondrous are the workings of our Lord who is at work in all things for our good (Romans 8:28). And how great are the blessings that await those of us who have been called by His name (1 Corinthians 2:8-9).

What Books Are You Currently Reading?

I've always loved to read books. In fact, I'm quite unhappy if I do not have three or four or more I'm working on at any given time. One of the temptations I have to fight continually is the temptation to buy yet another book. I'm somewhat like Desiderius Erasmus, who is purported to have said,“When I get a little money, I buy books, and if any is left, I buy food and clothes."

Here are a few of the books I'm currently into and some of the things I'm learning:
What's So Great About Christianity by Dinesh D'Souza. D'Souza points out that the whole science versus religion story is a nineteenth century fabrication. To this day many people believe that the medieval church held that the earth was flat until modern science demonstrated that the globe is round. In fact, the ancient Greeks and medieval Christians knew this. Dante's medieval cosmology, for instance, was based on the idea of a spherical earth.

I'm enjoying D'Souza, especially because he explodes many such false ideas about Christian faith and history.

Women Pastors? The Ordination of Women in Biblical Lutheran Perspective, edited by Matthew C. Harrison and John T. Pless. I have written much about this topic, especially since there is a very strong opinion in our modern world that men and women are equal. These Lutheran theologians from around the world point out that this begs the question. That's not really the issue. The point is that clergy are appointed by Christ to be His public voice and Christ chose to become incarnate in the male gender. Why? So that he might demonstrate that His Father is the Giver and that through Him the heavenly Father gives forgiveness and grace. We of the church are the receivers, the Bride to whom Christ gives life and mercy. It is Christ's intent then that the public ministers who preach, teach and administer the sacraments be of the male gender so that by their very persons they demonstrate this gift of God's grace.

The Return of The Prodigal Son by Henri J.M. Nouwen. This is really Nouwen's reflections upon a reproduction of Rembrandt's The Return of the Prodigal Son. I'm dismally trained to study and reflect upon painting and know so very little about it. This is why I've been so grateful to Nouwen as he not only takes me into the mind of Rembrandt, but helps me to reflect upon the wondrous parable and learn how this applies to my life. For instance, he writes, "The joy at the dramatic return of the younger son in no way means that the elder son was less loved, less appreciated, less favored. The father does not compare the two sons. He loves them both with a complete love and expresses that love according to their individual journeys."

George MacDonald: The Best From All His Works, The Christian Classics collection, vol. 1. I won this volume in a draw at a writing group meeting. I accepted the book gratefully because I know of the influence MacDonald had on C.S. Lewis, one of my all-time favorite authors. I'm enjoying a couple of MacDonald's fantasy writings in this volume. Here's what he says in one of his unspoken sermons, published in 1886. "The life the Lord came to give us is a life exceeding that of the highest undivine man, by far more than the life of that man exceeds the life of the animal the least human. More and more of it is for each who will receive it, and to eternity. The Father has given to the Son to have life in himself; that life is our light. We know life only as light; it is the life in us that makes us see. All the growth of the Christian is the more and more life he is receiving."

There you have them, four that I'm currently into. What books are you reading? I'm always looking for good recommendations.