We will always have to deal with the result of sin. Remember that the world is fallen, that people are broken and need healing, that our natural pursuit of pleasure leads to disaster. They say that hurt people hurt people, and that's true, but it's not an excuse. Sometimes our sin doesn't hurt us right away. Sometimes it hurts someone else instead. There are always consequences.
We will always have to deal with the result of sin.
When we do stuff, stuff happens. (I know, groundbreaking, right?)
In the parenting circles I joined when my child was tiny, we discussed the concept of "consequences", especially natural consequences.
Developmentally, very young children (i.e., toddlers) do not possess the ability to hold back from impulsive behaviour. If they see something interesting, they want it immediately. They don't understand that grabbing the shiny metal thing off the kitchen counter could result in them getting cut because it's a knife, and knives are sharp. Because of this sort of thing, we tried to think ahead and create safe spaces for our tiny children to inhabit, where they could touch anything and pull on things without much risk of getting hurt or of breaking something.
As children get older, they slowly gain the ability to think through things before they act, which makes their parents' lives easier! But they do begin to deal with natural consequences.
A natural consequence is whatever happens as a result of the behaviour. If you try to pour yourself your own glass of milk using the full 4L jug from the fridge, you might spill it and then there will be milk all over the floor. If you pet the cat nicely, she will snuggle up to you and purr, but if you pull her tail she's going to run away.
As parents, we try to set our children up for success, and then if there is a negative outcome we work together to deal with it. We give the four-year-old a rag and we both mop up the milk. We comfort the two-year-old who misses his kitty.
When I worked in early intervention, we had to take a lot of data on unwanted behaviours. We filled out what's known as an "ABC Chart", which typically has a column for the date, then an Antecedent column, Behaviour column, and Consequence column, and finally a column for notes. The Antecedent is whatever happened right before the child did the behaviour in question. The Behaviour is exactly what the child did. The Consequence is whatever happened right after the child did the behaviour. Keeping track of this information is supposed to help figure out why they're doing the unwanted behaviour so you can figure out a good way to change or replace the behaviour. The overall process can be implemented well or terribly, but in my experience mostly it's mediocre.
Anyway.
On the ABC Chart, the Consequence has nothing to do with punishment or whatever, it's literally just how people responded or how the child's behaviour changed. (These are used in loads of settings with people with developmental and intellectual disabilities of all ages, I just used them with kids.) No value judgment is made regarding any of these things beyond that the behaviour is something we don't want the child to do.
The ultimate consequence of sin is death--permanent separation from God. But in our lives here on earth, we experience more immediate consequences of our sin.
Sometimes those consequences only affect the sinner, though it doesn't take long for them to affect other people as well: think of someone who starts out drinking too much so they can have fun at a party and then becomes an alcoholic who drives while intoxicated and walks away from an accident unscathed while the family in the other vehicle loses a parent and a child to their injuries. The alcoholic is then imprisoned, denying their loved ones of their presence in their lives.
At the same time, there are consequences for following Jesus. When we first accept Him into our hearts and surrender our lives to His guidance, we are often filled with peace, joy, and happiness. Those positive feelings spill over onto those around us, and they notice the change. When we do good things in the world, we feel good and other people benefit from those good things.
This is why we pursue righteousness. Obedience to God's Word keeps us on that narrow path, and the change in our lives attracts others to the faith.
That doesn't mean everything is perfect once we orient ourselves correctly.
We still live in a fallen world, and we still fall for those lies that surround us constantly.
And the consequences of our sin, and those of others' sins, will affect us at times.
May we all continue to do our best to rise above, to meet God's standards and to stay on the narrow road, confessing and repenting as often as need be.
Peace & Blessings.
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