If there is one thing we know about good soup it is
that it may as well be pond water after a dead fly is
found floating in it. Though there may be some who
would eat the soup anyway, many, I dare say, would
lose their appetite. Actually, this is only one of many
ways we describe something so good being ruined by
one bad thing. Does not “one rotten apple in the
barrel ruin the whole bunch?”
The Bible shares this sentiment with a few
expressions of its own. “Dead flies putrefy the
perfumer’s ointment, and cause it to give off a foul
odor; so does a little folly for one respected for
wisdom and honor” (Eccl. 10:1). One of the more
quoted expressions found in Scripture is “a little
leaven leavens the whole lump” (1 Cor. 5:6; Gal. 5:
9). Leaven is that element in dough that causes it to
rise. Paul here used the term in reference to sin. To
tolerate or embrace even the smallest element of sin
will eventually bring about the ruin of one’s soul. So
then, spiritually speaking, is there a fly in your
soup?