We often excuse ourselves from things we know are wrong: people speak of ‘little white lies’ or ‘a small vice’ as if somehow saying something or doing something subtly minimises its impact. Yet we heard last Sunday morning:
“…what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body…” (James 3:5,6)
In other words, apparently small things that we do or especially that we say can cause enormous problems.
Yet we must understand, not just the effect that our words or actions have on other people, but more importantly, the offence that they can cause to God:
As we heard last Sunday evening from Psalm 51, King David’s sinful acts, devastating as they were for those affected, he described as:
“Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.” (Psalm 51:4)
However we regard what we say or do, from the Lord’s perspective there is no subtlety to sin. It’s always deserving of His wrath, worthy of Hell and condemning.
We should continually thank the Lord then for the truth of the Gospel of grace in the Lord Jesus as we put our trust in Him. As theologian AW Pink so helpfully described it: the Lord Jesus is the only one who can save us from both the “penalty, power and presence of sin” in our lives.
This week, lets ensure that our thinking and living is shaped by God’s Word, recognising the impact of even the apparently ‘small’ things we do and ask the Lord to forgive and change us to better reflect His presence in our lives.
Spencer Shaw