Paul wrote to the Corinthian church: "I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish -- that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit and disorder. I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality and sensuality that they have practiced." 2 Corinthians 12:20-21
Our sins are connected deep inside us, more than we see. We tend to compartmentalize sin. We tell ourselves we can sin in one area and it will stay contained in that area. My private sin will not affect my public life, we think. My personal sin will have no impact on my family life or my work life. It's easier to rationalize that way.
But the reality of what we are and how we work is more subtle, more interrelated, more inevitable. What happens in one place in our life tend to affect all other palces over time. When the Corinthian church was bouncing off the walls with quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit and disorder, and when Paul probed deeper, what he found down there was unrepentant sexual sin. It was that root that gave rise to quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit and disorder. It's all connected.
We must never believe in the lie that private sin will have no public impact.
One final note: the English theologian Richard Sibbes (1577 - 1635) highlighted this comforting truth - "There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us." Amen!
