“…gonna get the good Lord to forgive a little sin
get the slate cleaned so he can dirty it again
and no one else will ever know…”
I just finished a Bible study on the life of David. It was only six weeks long, so by no means exhaustive, but I’ve walked away from it with a new realization that there is no thing as “personal sin”. I’m not saying all sin is corporate but it’s not personal.
All of my actions and reactions affect more than just myself. When I sin it’s not a personal thing. I may think so. I may believe that what I do in secret, remains in secret and affects no one else.
An example, and I am in no way saying smoking is a sin. I see smoking as being amoral, or neither moral nor immoral. I could talk about our bodies being a temple of the Holy Spirit and as such should be taken care of. But smoking is no more a sin than over-eating.
I digress.
I have heard smokers argue that their smoking affects only them. It is something they do, it is their choice and no one else can tell them not to because it’s not affecting anyone else. Only with all we now know about second hand smoke, we know that isn’t true. Smoking affects everyone we come in contact with.
Sin is the same. David’s sin with Bathsheba affected not only himself, but Bathsheba, Uriah, Joab, Eliam, Absalom, Nathan, David’s unborn child. When David sinned by counting the Israelites his sin affected 70,000 Israelites.
Just like dropping a stone in the ocean, we never see the end of the ripples of sin. My sin affects not only myself, it affects those I live with and others around me. Even when I think no one knows.
And sin always has a consequence. Always. Even the sins we are sure no one knows about. God has a way of revealing them. Or we do. You see we’re not as good at hiding things as we think we are. We’re still trying to cover our sin with fig leaves, and well those tend to reveal more than they cover.
When David committed adultery with Bathsheba, he thought (or I’m assuming he thought) if he could get Uriah to think it was his baby, no one would know. When that plan backfired, he thought if he got rid of Uriah, no one would know. How silly he was.
How silly we are.
I think next time I’m tempted to sin, thinking no one will ever know, I’ll remember that Jesus died for my sins PUBLICLY. For Him it wasn’t a personal thing.
(lyrics at the start from Sin For A Season by Steve Taylor)
myfullcup.wordpress.com 