The apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 2:2-3:

In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

These verses link together many things regarding sin:

» All have been involved in sin.
» Sin is the force that drives this world.
» This driving force emanates from Satan.
» It motivates conduct involving flesh and mind.

Sin does negative things to us and others. If it were positive or even neutral, a loving God would be unconcerned about it. He would not lead us to repentance or demand that we repent of it. He would not command us to overcome it and come out of this world.

Satan is at the crux of sin. His name means "Adversary." He is against God and anything godly. In Revelation 9:11, he is called "Abaddon" and "Apollyon," and both of these names, one Hebrew, the other Greek, mean "Destroyer." Satan is a destroyer, and the spirit that emanates from him, that drives this world and produces sin, is a destroying spirit. We can broadly say that sin does two bad things simultaneously: It produces negative results and destroys.

What Sin Destroys

William Barclay, the author of the Daily Bible Study Series, provides a list of things sin destroys:

Sin destroys innocence: We find evidence of this truth at the beginning of God's Word. In Genesis 3:7-11 God records Adam's and Eve's reaction to their sin:

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?" So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself." And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?"

Were two people ever more innocent at the beginning of their lives than Adam and Eve? Immediately after sinning, though, they felt shame because of their nakedness, and they doubly showed their guilt by hiding from God. Do the truly innocent have any need to hide? Do the innocent need to feel shame?

Sin tarnishes a person's mind so that he does not look at life in quite the same way anymore. David expresses how this stain of sin affected him in Psalm 40:12, "My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up." Paul later explains, "To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled" (Titus 1:15).

A well-known series of scriptures, beginning in Matthew 18:1, touches on innocence and its destruction. It starts with a question from the disciples: "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" Jesus replies that unless we become as little children, we will not be in the Kingdom of Heaven. Is not the beauty of their innocence and the harmless vulnerability of little children a major reason why we find them so adorable? They produce no harm, shame, or guilt. But what happens as they become adults? They become sophisticated, worldly, cosmopolitan, cynical, suspicious, sarcastic, prejudiced, self-centered, cool, uninvolved, and many other negative things. They also seem to lose their zest for life. Sin does that.

Sin destroys ideals: A tragic process begins when we become involved in sin. At first, we regard sin with horror. A man, a lifelong vegetarian before coming into the true church, accepted the truth that it is permissible to eat meats. The first time he tried it, though, he became so emotionally overwrought, he vomited it up. Though he was doing something good, his mind had still not adjusted to that fact, and it reacted as if it were evil.

If we continue to commit the sin, we will still feel ill at ease and unhappy about it, but gradually our consciences will adjust. Each sin makes the next one a bit easier. Over time, the conduct will become entirely acceptable, and we will sin without a qualm. Sin is addictive like a drug. As the addiction becomes stronger, the ideal depreciates until it is completely gone.

Mark 10:17-24 tells the tragic story of a wealthy young man who greatly desired to become part of Jesus' following. Because he wanted eternal life and to be in God's Kingdom, he asked Jesus what he must do to obtain them. When Christ replied that he would have to get rid of all he had, his high ideals came crashing down. A sin smashed them because his sin was stronger than his ideals. Jesus says in verse 24: "And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, ‘Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the Kingdom of God!'" The young man's covetousness destroyed his ideals, and he was willing to settle for less.

Sin destroys the will: The will is the power or faculty by which the mind makes choices and acts to carry them out. An old adage says: "Sow an act and reap a habit; sow a habit and reap a character; sow a character and reap a destiny." At first, against his will, a person engages in some forbidden pleasure out of weakness, curiosity, or sheer carnality. If the practice continues, he sins because he cannot help doing so; he is becoming addicted to it. Once a sin becomes a habit, he considers it to be almost a necessity. When it becomes a necessity, his destiny is produced.

The author of Hebrews writes:

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end." (Hebrews 3:12-14)

"The deceitfulness of sin"! In this context, to be deceitful is to be seductively and enticingly misleading. Sin promises what it cannot deliver. It promises pleasure, contentment, fulfillment—life—but its delivery of them is fleeting and ultimately unsatisfying. Its deceitfulness is the very reason why it has addictive qualities. It lures us on to try to capture what it can never deliver.

The pleasure is never quite enough to produce the contentment and fulfillment one desires. Thus, people are forced into greater and deeper perversions until it results in death. All along the way, from its inception to death, sin quietly produces hardness of heart. Like a callus that forms over a break in a bone or stiffens a person's joints, sin paralyzes right action.

"Hardness" is translated from skleruno, from which the name for multiple sclerosis is derived. In a moral context, it means "impenetrable," "insensitive," "blind," or "unteachable." A hardened attitude is not a sudden aberration but the product of a habitual state of mind that reveals itself in inflexibility of thinking and insensitivity of conscience. Eventually, it makes repentance impossible. The will to do right is completely gone.

Sin produces slavery: This product of sin follows directly from the will's destruction. When a person sins, he is not really doing what he likes but what sin likes! Paul writes in Romans 7:17, 23: "But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. . . . But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." Even though one may enjoy the sin while doing it, the individual is not in control—sin is! This is doubly true when one sins with knowledge.

We must be very careful of this because Jesus warns, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin" (John 8:34). Having gained our freedom through Christ's sacrifice and God's gift of the Holy Spirit, we do not want to be pulled back into bondage. As He says in the next verse, "And a slave does not abide in the house [God's Kingdom] forever, but a son abides forever."

Paul makes his approach to sin clear: "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any" (I Corinthians 6:12). His strong statement reflects his resolve—through such virtues as his knowledge of God, self-control, moderation, and patience—to set his will not to permit any created thing, animate or inanimate, to gain dominance over him through his sins.

Sin produces more sin: James 1:12-16 lists the steps leading to sin, beginning with temptation. People rarely stop at just one sin, however, and it is often not long before they add another and another to the chain. Jeremiah describes this course of sin in his day—the same process likely to occur in anyone's life: "'And like their bow they have bent their tongues for lies. They are not valiant for the truth on the earth. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know Me,' says the LORD" (Jeremiah 9:3). This is a major reason why God uses leaven to symbolize sin. As leaven spreads as it does its work in a lump of dough, so sin spreads and corrupts the lives of all it touches.

For example, a tragic sequence of events begins in Genesis 37 with one sin whose impact reverberates to this day! Jacob's favoritism (respect of persons) for Joseph irritated his brothers. Their irritation grew into jealousy and flared into hatred. They conspired to commit murder, sold Joseph into slavery, and deceived Jacob to hide their complicity and guilt.

What happened to their relationship with their father after this? Did they live in fear that one of the brothers would "squeal" on the others? Did they ever feel guilty for the pain they inflicted upon Jacob? Did their actions honor him? Did these events intensify his over-protectiveness of Benjamin and, in reality, make things worse for them than when Joseph was with them? Sin produces more sin unless someone stops it by repenting.

Sin produces sickness, pain, and degeneracy: The episode involving Jesus and the paralytic (Mark 2:1-10) makes a distinct connection between sin and sickness. This effect is often subtle because an illness or a poor, weak, rundown state of health may not be the result of a specific sin. It may be the product of a series of sins committed over many years or a lifetime. Sin is so subtle that a worldly person, examining himself for the cause of his sickness, may never consider sin at all. Not knowing God, he would have no inclination to look to sin as the cause.

Our Savior certainly connects sin with sickness: "Jesus said, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk.' . . . Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, ‘See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you'" (John 5:8, 14). It could hardly be clearer.

Sin produces death: Death is the ultimate in slavery, bondage so intense no one escapes from it unless the Lord raises him. It is such a powerful enemy that, according to I Corinthians 15:26, it is the last one destroyed. James' vivid portrayal of the course of sin also shows death to be sin's final result:

Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. (James 1:13-16)

A person's first sin gives birth to the first death. Repeated sinning without true repentance, especially when one has a knowledge of God, brings forth the second death (Revelation 20:13-15). What more can we add?

Know Your Enemy

This article has provided no solutions, but one is certainly implied from beginning to end. As we are involved in this spiritual warfare, we would be well served to observe one of the primary principles of war: The better we know our enemy, the better our chances to defeat him. We need to understand more fully how the Bible perceives sin. It is a formidable and devastating opponent. It lurks within, looking for any opportunity to spring forth and gain dominion over us, seeking to produce more of its kind while it destroys life's God-intended qualities and, finally, life itself.

The law of God exposes and condemns sin. A purpose of the law, combined with the Holy Spirit, is to lift the lid from our self-deceived respectability and reveal what we—and sin—are like underneath. Perhaps a weakness of the church is to soft-pedal sin and God's judgment. But sin is rampant in these end times, and the judgment of God has begun upon us (I Peter 4:17)! We do not want to be like the false prophets described in Jeremiah 6:14, "They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly, saying ‘Peace, peace!' when there is no peace."

Very likely, the degree of our appreciation of grace and the gospel of the Kingdom of God stands in direct proportion to our understanding and abhorrence of sin. It has been said that the beauty of a pearl cannot be appreciated when there is no conception of the filth of a pig sty. Only against the inky blackness of the night sky do stars sparkle brilliantly. Thus, it is only against the ugly background of sin and judgment that the beauty of God's grace and His gospel shine.

Not until we clearly see that sin has battered, bruised, and driven us to despair will we even begin to admit our need. Not until we grasp that sin has arrested, imprisoned, condemned, and killed us will we reach out to Christ for justification and life. Sin is no joke. We need not be morbid about it, but we should certainly check for it often within ourselves to avoid its deceptive, life-destroying bondage.