Articles
The Emotional Toll of Sin
A Christian sister was lamenting the fallout from her son’s latest romantic drama. He is a troubled, worldly young man who has been in and out of jail. He openly practices casual sex without commitment and has used and abandoned a string of women. He has fathered more than one child with different girlfriends.
But his latest fling is not your typical patsy. She is as shrewd, manipulative and persistent as he is. She has even tried to bring the young man’s mother under her domineering power as leverage in the relationship.
The young man recently confided to his mother his desperation to be rid of the girlfriend. But she isn’t going quietly. The sister then related a past conversation with her homosexual nephew. His lifestyle was destroying him emotionally. He was searching for a way out of it but committed suicide before she could help him. The sister then said, “My son had the same look in his eyes as my nephew before he took his life.”
This story illustrates a truth Satan doesn’t want us to see: slavery to sin goes beyond judicial guilt. Sin exacts an emotional toll as well. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23), but it is also shame and jealousy and anger and vindictiveness and despair and many other destructive feelings. Spiritually insensitive people cannot seem to fathom why someone else might resent being sexually used and discarded. They are slow to learn that selfish, demeaning, injurious behavior creates a heavy burden.
Exhibit A: Judas. Scripture suggests no other motive than greed in Judas’ betrayal of Jesus. Judas was a thief; Mary’s “waste” of spikenard on Jesus angered him (Jn 12:4-6). Shortly thereafter he struck his deal to secure Jesus’ capture, netting him 30 pieces of silver (Mt 26:14-15). But that was not the end of the story: “Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver … saying, ‘I have betrayed innocent blood.’ And they said, ‘What is that to us? You see to it!’ Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself” (Mt 27:3-5). Judas’s sin caused an anguish of spirit that money could not ease. This is what sin does on many levels.
Scripture doesn’t offer insight into how Judas’ betrayal affected the other disciples, but it’s a wonder that Malchus was the target of Peter’s sword instead of Judas. Sin negatively affects more people than just the offender.
The sister told of another episode years earlier from her failing marriage. On one occasion she offered an olive branch to her husband who rejected her in a demeaning way. As she was leaving she saw his car parked nearby. She said, “I was so angry I wanted to slash his tires, key the paint, bash his car in. But I didn’t. I just kept on walking. I knew a Christian couldn’t do those things.” (She gave me permission to share these stories.)
Higher spiritual principles such as confession, repentance, forgiveness, wisdom, conscience, self-control, etc. help us cope with the emotional corrosion of sin. But the world lacks those tools. We are surrounded by people who “are heavy laden” (Mt 11:28) with emotional baggage. So much unsavory behavior is the overflow of inner misery. Sin is toxic, ruinous. It destroys our joy, peace and self-respect long before it drags us through the gates of hell. God be thanked for both forgiveness and healing.
