'My Sin Never Affects Just Me'
"If the high priest sins, bringing guilt upon the entire community, he must give a sin offering for the sin he has committed. He must present to the Lord a young bull with no defects. (Leviticus 4:3 NLT)
Our sin never affects just us. Here in this passage God instructs the priest what to do if he sins. The same application for the sins of the people is seen verses later. Notice what the Lord says, "If the high priest sins, bringing guilt upon the whole community." One man sins & yet many are made guilty. Sound like another man I know of. Adam sinned & every human being that has been born of flesh & blood has been guilty. One sin in the garden ruined all of mankind! Some 6000 years later & things are still broken. All because of one man's sin.
We don't think this way in terms of sin though. We think our sin is just about us. We think it will just affect us. This is one of the greatest lies of the enemy. "Go ahead! No one is watching. How is this going to hurt anyone else?"
John Piper mentioned this principle in one of his sermons on sexual sin. He said, "Even the man that watches a computer screen with just him & an image is affecting others with his sin. How are we to know if there isn't a godly grandmother praying for that girl involved in that lifestyle to come back to Jesus?"
In fact, we never really know who our sin hurts. We may not see it in the short run but we can be assured our sin affects others. Some sins I have committed have just now began to really affect others in my life. Who knows the damage it has done in the past?
How would we approach our sin if we knew it affected our spouse? Our kids? Our church family? Our business? Our work? Our finances? Our Kingdom usefulness? Our God?
Sin never affects just us. What sin can we repent of today in order to stop affecting God, us, & others in our lives?
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