What is sin costing you? Have you ever taken the time to ask yourself this question? And if so, how often? Sin is not some one-off occurrence in our lives, happening randomly and sporadically on different days of the week. We struggle against sin every day, fighting what seems to be ingrained in our human nature.
Anger, hatred, lust, sloth, avarice, and more. Our own sins may differ from the people we know, but we all struggle with sin just the same. Thus, considering whatever you’ve done, whatever you do, what has sin cost you?
I’ll be the first to tell you, I don’t always consider the cost of my sin. Whether misleading people for fear of giving an honest opinion or staying up too late on the Internet, sin has definitely come with costs.
Maybe in your life, sin has led to the destruction of a relationship, a marriage perhaps, or have you felt the sting of shame for an evening, maybe even a year, or longer?
Scripture is clear in warning us of the perils brought about by sin.
“Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.” (James 1:15)
Our sins may differ from one another, but all sin ends in destruction. The destruction of something or someone, eventually. This is a moment to take note and consider these 10 ways sin could be costing you.
1. Time
One sure way sin costs all of us is through time. We expend money and energy in our bad deeds, but those we can get back. Not time. For that reason alone, time is the greatest gift we can ever give someone, and the most unfortunate thing sin causes us to lose.
Sin steals our time during the act, and when we face the consequences. A man engaging in theft is using minutes, even hours, to commit a crime. However, more time is expended when he’s caught, tried, and does time behind bars.
2. Relationships
One of the worst ways to ruin a marriage is through infidelity. That’s also a prime example of how sin destroys relationships. When we engage in sin, we promote our own desires first above what God wants, but also the well-being of another.
The adulterous woman values herself over her family. As a result, she fractures the bond shared with her husband, and damages her children more than she realizes when she first deciding to engage in the act.
When we sin, we may not be thinking to ourselves that this act will hurt others, but that is part of the problem. We don’t consider all the consequences, namely the people we impact.
3. Peace
Where there is sin, there is a lack of peace. While sin disrupts the harmony we experience in relationships, we are also robbed of any internal peace.
Consider the porn-addicted man living two lives, one he shows to his family and coworkers, and the other he keeps behind a locked door. Indulging in sin requires commitment. And juggling different lifestyles, that is, sin and virtue, inevitably leads to a fear of being caught. Living on the edge is the opposite of living with God’s perfect peace.
4. Joy
Joy is long-lasting happiness, the sort of happiness that persists in the midst of unfavorable situations. Much like sin disrupts our feelings of peace, so too does sin affect our sense of joy. We may tell ourselves that copious amounts of alcohol, television, or social media feel good, but the feelings are ephemeral. Eventually, we return to the same place of longing where we first started. Sin ensures nothing good lasts, especially our joy.
5. Faith
Strong faith tends to keep us away from sin, while strong sin tends to keep us away from faith. This makes sense considering sin is a disconnect between us and God. When we choose sin, we are not seeing Him as a father, protector, or provider. Oftentimes in our sin, we don’t see Him as anything because we’re ignoring His presence. Acknowledging God would break our commitment to sin. In the same way, our sin breaks our commitment to God.
6. Trust
One long-lasting effect of sin is the inability to trust. Sometimes we figure that if we were so weak as to stoop to certain depths, lying, betrayal, deceit, why wouldn’t other people? Why wouldn't our wife cheat if we did the same? Why wouldn't someone lie to us when we ourselves are so accustomed to lying?
Trust requires time and experience to build, but indulgence in sin can undo all of that.
7. Money
Some sins require money to keep going: prostitution, gambling, food and alcohol addictions. Sometimes we spend a little bit, and sometimes we lose all of our earnings. And sometimes, our treatment of money is the sin itself. This is why Scripture points to money as the root of so much evil in the world. Think of the corrupt politicians in government or the corporations that maximize profit over helping people.
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.“ (1 Timothy 6:10)
8. Hope
Despite the dreams we conjure up for ourselves as children or as adults, sin has a way of crumbling our hopes and aspirations. This is because sin takes away our time, energy, finances, and more, all of which we need to bring our hopes into fruition. Moreover, sin hinders our relationship with God, damaging the hope we put in Him for a bright future. Believing in anything good is hard to do when covered in sin.
9. Confidence
In sin, we don’t just lose confidence in God, but also ourselves. Shame accompanies bad-decision making and only compounds when we witness the consequences of our deeds. Without confidence, we don’t show up as the best version of ourselves at church, home, work, or anywhere.
10. Freedom
“Jesus responded, ‘Truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.’” (John 8:34)
Those of us who find ourselves committing the same sins repeatedly are no doubt slaves to those sins. While Jesus paid the cost for our deeds and God has set us free, we choose to live in bondage. We aren’t free from the consequences of sin in this life, but we are free from living life in sin. We simply have to make that choice.
If we don’t, we forfeit our freedom. And without freedom, we risk losing all of the aforementioned ideas on this list.
Let’s consider the question once more. What has sin cost you? Did a particular category on this list speak to you, or can you relate to each one?
The battle we wage with sin is daily, but take heart. God is with us every step of the way. He doesn’t just offer forgiveness, He offers strength. He doesn’t just show us mercy, He offers us a way out.
Author’s Note: Inspired by “Here’s How to Resist Temptation” from the Guidelines for Living Devotional podcast.
Photo Credit: © Unsplash/niklas_hamann
Aaron D'Anthony Brown is a freelance writer, hip-hop dance teacher, and visual artist, living in Virginia. He currently contributes to Salem Web Network’s Crosswalk platform and supports various clients through the freelancing website Upwork. He's an outside-the-box thinker with a penchant for challenging the status quo.
Get in touch with him at aarondanthony.com and check out his debut short story anthology Honey Dreams on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.