Yeast

Interesting. Paul is warning the Galatians against being misled so that they lose sight of Jesus, lose sight of the Truth and become deceived. In Galatians 5:9, he uses the proverb  ‘A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.’ but this is not in the Bible.

Nevertheless, yeast symbolises sin in the Old Testament; is cited as obduracy in belief by Jesus; and, by Paul, sin which disrupts the church's worship of God.

For us in a Western world, this seems almost counterintuitive.

Our bread is not chapatti or tortilla, injera, or even traditional Irish sodabread or heavy German sourdough ryebreads.
No, we depend on yeast for the light, soft, delicious spongy wheat bread.

Interesting.

The pleasures of the world can indeed distract and detract from our pursuit of Jesus. I remember Romans 12:2 "Don’t be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him."

That is freedom: "It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom." (vv 13 - 14)

"Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness." (v19)

And if I am NOT animated and motivated by God's spirit? Then it is chaos: "It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time:... a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; ...magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom."