You know the Bible uses leaven as a symbol for sin during the Days of Unleavened Bread. But have you ever thought about what characteristics of leaven are similar to sin? Here are three ways that leaven is like sin:

1. It Puffs Up.

When you mix leavening agents with other ingredients, they create carbon dioxide and air. When you put leavening in bread dough and heat it, those gasses form bubbles that get trapped in the loaf, causing the product to rise. Likewise, sin puffs us up with vanity and selfish pride. Just like that bloating caused by leavening, sin causes us to lose godly perspective, and we become more and more inflated with ourselves—puffed up with the substance-less gasses of arrogance and self confidence. 1 Corinthians 5:1-2 shows how tolerating sin caused the Corinthians to become puffed up.

2. It Is Soft and Easy.

Because of its soft texture, leavened bread is usually easier to eat than unleavened bread. Likewise, going the way of sin and this world is easier than living righteously, because we still have natures that want to sin (Romans 7:14-15). It is through the battle against sin that we develop the character of God-this is our part in God’s master plan. It continues all of our natural lives.

3. It Spreads.

When you put leaven in a lump of dough, you can’t see anything happening at first. But once it does its work, the whole loaf is leavened. Likewise, sin can start small—even invisibly—but it spreads. One sin leads to another. That is why we must put sin out completely! There is a danger in thinking we can handle just a little bit of spiritual leaven. The Apostle Paul said that “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (1 Corinthians 5:6). Sin not only spreads through our lives after it starts, but if tolerated, it can spread through an entire family or even a Church congregation, as it did with Corinth.