A little leaven
Paul on tolerated compromise
The Corinthian church was tolerating an obvious sin in its midst and even feeling sophisticated about it. Paul refuses to let the size of the thing fool them: do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? A small amount of yeast quietly works its way through the entire batch until the whole is changed.
The wisdom writers said the same of folly: a single dead fly spoils the whole perfumer's ointment. Small tolerated compromises do not stay small. Left unaddressed, they permeate everything around them.
“Don't you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump?”
— Paul, to the Corinthians — 1 Corinthians 5:6 (WEB)
Small tolerated compromises spread. A little corruption left unaddressed eventually permeates the whole, so deal with it while it is small.
“Dead flies cause the oil of the perfumer to produce an evil odor; so does a little folly outweigh wisdom and honor.”
Paul refused to let the smallness of a compromise excuse leaving it alone. A leader formed here addresses small wrongs before they spread, in himself and his culture. He does not mistake minor for harmless. The inner work is dealing with the little leaven early.
Address small compromises promptly rather than letting them normalize. Watch for the minor wrong that, left alone, would reshape your whole culture. Do not wait until a tolerated exception has become the standard. Keep the lump clean by dealing with the leaven while it is small.
Leaders leave small compromises unaddressed as not worth the conflict, missing how they spread until the exception becomes the norm. The blind spot is mistaking small for harmless.
Name one small compromise you have been tolerating because it seems too minor to confront. This week, address it while it is still small.
Leaders are tempted to leave small compromises alone — too minor to address, not worth the conflict. But the small thing tolerated has a way of working through the whole culture until what was once an exception becomes the norm.
What small compromise are you currently tolerating because it seems too minor to confront — and where is it quietly spreading?