You Aren't Hurting Anyone Else, You Are Hurting EVERYONE Else

You did it again, and you don't care.
You made sure no one saw you drive up. You shut the door. You closed the curtains. You hit the delete button. You threw away the evidence. You made sure no one saw you leave.

You did it again, and you don't care. You don't care, because you don't think it's hurting anyone else. It's your sin, and you keep it to yourself.

Here's the cold hard truth: It's not hurting anyone else, it's hurting everyone else.

That thing you saw? It's replaying in your mind while you talk to your friends, your boss, your teacher, your mother, your father, your brother, your sister, your wife, your husband, or your child. You are distracted, and it's starting to show.

That thing you did, that no one else saw? It's coursing through your veins. It's ruling your mind. You aren't fully present, because you are still living with, and in that sin.

You are paranoid. You are guilty. It's beginning to hurt, and it's catching up with you. At the same time, they notice.

Finally, what you've done comes out.

They are crying. They are hurt. They are discouraged. They may even be tempted.

Then you realize something: That sin you thought only involved you, and didn't hurt anyone else, well, it just hurt everyone else.

Who Do You Live For?

We like to think of ourselves as islands. You probably like to think that there are sinful things you can do that won't have any bearing on me. While it's true that your actions themselves may not directly hurt me, the effect that sin has on your mind can. You can, and will likely cause indirect harm.

If you are walking around with a sin problem, you are walking around with a heart problem. Since the rest of your life (i.e., your words and actions) ultimately comes out of your heart (see Proverbs 4:23), that sin is going to affect something external.

What's in your mind will manifest itself somehow in your words and actions somewhere down the line.

I may not know exactly how. You may not know exactly how either. But it will have an effect, and it could be disastrous for you and for me, even if I don't know that you sinned. But what if I do?

At the very least, your sin can be discouraging to me. How much discouragement do you think I can take from you? For that matter, how much discouragement can your friends, family, and church family take from you? Worse, it can tempt me, too. It can tempt me to join in, or tempt me to commit my own "secret" sin.

It all comes down to who you are living for. When you are indulging in that secret, "harmless" sin, you are living for yourself. But I don't want you living just for you, and I don't want you living for me. I want you to live for Christ. If you do, it will help both of us.

Living for the Lord is what Paul wrote about in Romans 14:7-9:

For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. (Romans 14:7-9 ESV)

Whether it's drugs, alcohol, adultery, pornography, online gambling, cheating, lying, or some other sin that doesn't seem to hurt someone else, remember this: It's going to have an effect somewhere in your life. Others will see, or maybe even experience that effect. Then, at that point, it will begin to affect them.

So protect your heart. Repent of sin. Stop hurting yourself with sin, and likewise, you'll stop hurting everyone else with that sin. Don't live for you, live for the Lord.

-Daniel

For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. (Ecclesiastes 12:14 ESV)