COVID-19 has shut down another sports team. The Duke men’s basketball team has pulled out of the ACC tournament, ending their season. One of their walk-on players tested positive for the virus. Just losing one player who had a very limited role would not normally have a negative impact on a team. However, contact tracing would have made multiple Blue Devil players ineligible, thus making it necessary to cancel the rest of the season.

This illustrates a biblical principle about how the sin of just one member can have a negative impact on the whole church. 1 Corinthians 5 says that the serious sin of just one member works its way through the congregation like yeast works its way through the whole batch of dough. One person’s sin has a negative impact on all the other members, often in ways we would never expect, and maybe in ways that are not obviously noticeable. But the principle is plain for all to see. The holiness of every single member of the church should be a top priority, and serious sin in the congregation must not be tolerated. Churches who ignore this biblical truth will suffer the consequences for their disobedience.