reason #9 on the lent list...

Reason #9 not to sin....

Because others, including my family, suffer consequences due to my sin.

This. one. is. hard. Just keeping it real here, but I struggled through this at a particularly rebellious point in my life several years ago. I was actually living in the delusion that I was operating in a bubble. Then, I remember when it hit me like a ton of bricks: "Jeffrey, Maggie, Jack and Ali are the ones who will suffer because of your selfishness and sin." It was no small feat and required the intervention of the Holy Spirit and a huge season of brokenness. Much like my teenage fear of disappointing my father, the thought that I might harm my husband or children through sin is excruciatingly painful.

In thinking about this reason, I googled this question and got a great answer. There's no need to try and figure out a creative way to restate what I found, so here it is. Would love your thoughts as always on this subject.

Question: "How does my personal, private sin affect others?"

Answer: If you lived isolated on an island in the middle of the sea, then perhaps your private sin would not affect anyone but yourself. However, since the maxim is "no man is an island," there is a good chance that you have a family or at the least friends and acquaintances that you come into contact with on a continual basis. All of them will be affected in some way by sin because sin has consequences (Romans 6:23). That is a principle that follows the pattern laid down at the creation. Everything created has a seed from which it propagates itself after its "kind" (Genesis 1:11, 21,25). In other words, you do not plant corn and expect to harvest beets. You cannot “plant” sin—even in private—and not expect to reap a harvest of consequences. And consequences have a way of spilling out over everyone and anyone that comes into contact with us because of another principle called "association." This means that those around you can be blessed or hurt by association with you and the choices and actions you make, both privately and publicly.

One needs only to look at the recent scandals involving famous evangelical leaders to see the effects on others of “private” sins. Once they are discovered—and the Bible tells us to “be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23)—families, friends, congregations, and the Christian community at large will be harmed. Worse still, the cause of Christ will be damaged as unbelievers scoff and sneer at us and blaspheme His name. It may seem that people sin without visible consequences, but what is secret will one day be made manifest. "For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open" (Luke 8:17). Can you honestly say that there is no one that would then be affected by your secret sins if they should become known?

Sin that is kept secret produces guilt, and guilt has a way of changing us. Others see those changes and are affected by them.

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Ugh. This is the last kind of effect I want to have on anyone. Instead, I want to affect them for Christ and the joy of surrendering to Him.


peace.