Little Sins
J. Armstrong, D. D. 1 Corinthians 5:6-13 Your glorying is not good. Know you not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?… No man reaches at once an extremity of sin; the descent is not abrupt, but sloped. Little sins must creep in before great sins can find room. First the thin end of the wedge, to make way for the broader part. The ordinary laws of motion seem to apply to the spiritual ease; the speed increases fast after a time. So is the chain of sin slight at first and weak, like a single thread that seems scarcely to hold the soul, and which the soul hardly feels; and then it changes into a twisted skein, and then into a corded rope, and then into links of iron. So it is like a little leaven, that works on from part to part, till it has leavened the whole lump. Speak of a murder to a boy, and he will start in horror at the very word, and his blood run cold, as he thinks of tales of violent death. Yet the murderer was once a boy shuddering at the sight of a little blood, putting his hand with an uneasy conscience to some little sin. Little sins grow into great, first as it were a mere scratch on the flesh, and then a putrefying sore. Satan works like the leaven, not spreading his net over every part at once, but stealing his way to the dominion of our souls. So have we seen a little stream creeping through the fields, and then it has gathered other streams like itself, and these being joined to one another, have gone down together widening into a mighty river, that has swept down to the sea with its broad breast of waters and its strong rushing tide. Even so have we seen a small seed cast into the fruitful earth, and before long the seed has put forth its arms and opened for itself a way through the yielding soil, and the little stalk has risen with its green head above the earth, and the stalk has gradually broken forth into a strong plant, and the plant into a tree overshadowing the field. Allow little sins, suffer them to stay for a moment in our souls, and little they will not remain; open the door of our souls ever so little to any sin, and the sin will be soon master of the house and all that is therein. (J. Armstrong, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? WEB: Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump?