On Monday of this past week, I had an eye doctor appointment. As part of this appointment, they did a retinal scan of my eyes. It was discovered that my left eye has a “floater” in it.
Since this “floater” has not been bothering me and I was not even aware that anything was “floating” in my eye, the eye doctor simply said that we needed to keep an eye on it . . . “punny,” I know. When I go back next year, or if I start to notice it, they will take another look at it.
As I drove home in the snow with dilated eyes, I began to think about how we sometimes use the same logic to deal with sin. We know something we are doing is wrong, but if it is not really bothering us, well, we just need to keep an eye on it. We are aware that it is there and that it could be “problematic” later on, but for right now, we just need to watch it.
Many times, with physical things (like an “eye floater”) this is the most prudent course of action. As long as it is not getting any worse, there is no need to worry about it.
With sin, however, this is never a wise course to follow. When it comes to sin in our life, we need to understand that it is already, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant it is, deadly!
Romans 6:23 tells us, “The wages of sin is death . . .” Notice it does not differentiate between “big” sins and “little” sins. Paul does not see a difference in sin. All sin is against God. There is no little sin because there is no little God to sin against.
Perhaps the best way to illustrate this is with the subject of lying. We have been taught that there are degrees of lies. There are “big, bold-face lies” and there are “little, white lies” that do not really hurt anyone, so they are OK.
If we understand that a lie is a lie no matter how seemingly small and harmless, we will understand that even a “little white lie” hurts the one who tells it . . . because lying is a sin and a sin that is unrepented of will cause the one who is guilty of it to be eternally separated from God. I cannot think of anything that could be more hurtful than missing out on heaven.