Dear Church,

I have heard people say, “It’s my life; what I do with my life is no one else’s business and it doesn’t affect others.” This is what prevalent culture wants to indoctrinate, especially among our children: “It’s your life; you can do what you think is right, and even if it is wrong to someone else, if it is right to you, it is right.” The truth is sin not only hurts you but also hurts others in your life. We are connected people; that is the way God made us. Who you are and what you do always affects others. Sin is never private. Everything we do, good or bad, affects people in our lives. You may think that what you indulge in is private and secret, but sin can never be private or secret; it affects people in your life. Romans 14:7 says, “None of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone.”

For example, if you are an angry person and you lose temper with your children all the time, it affects your children’s emotional health in multiple ways, and also, you’re setting them up to be the same when they have children on their own. If you watch porn, this sin will affect your relationship with your spouse and with everyone close to your life. Some besetting sins rewire your brain, creating a chain reaction of havoc in your life. Now it doesn’t need to be blatant sins; it could even be sins of omission. If you fail to have your quiet time with God, the result of this sin may be experienced in how you react to people and circumstances in life. This is because when you don’t spend time with God, you don’t have the spiritual strength to fight sin in your life. The only way to move past this stumbling block in our life is to confess it and live a life of repentance. Don’t waltz with sin: Confess. To “confess” is to “agree with.” We agree with God that what we did grieves the heart of a holy God. Our prayer as believers should always be the prayer of David, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Be encouraged,
Mathews