Baptist City Blog

There are repercussions to everything. You may feel that you have the right to do whatever you want, but you must also understand that there are repercussions with every choice and action. For instance, you can drive your vehicle as fast as you want, but you are going to have to deal with the repercussions of paying a speeding ticket if you get caught. You can't expect to do whatever you want and not have to suffer the consequences that go with it.

Leprosy is a picture of sin. A person gets leprosy because something got in them that caused the disease. Likewise, sin is the result of someone allowing something to influence them that they should have never allowed in their life. Just like the leper had to cry,“Unclean,” sin also leaves the person who sins with unpleasant repercussions. In this chapter, you see four repercussions caused by sin.

First, sin leaves you with a bad stigma. The person with leprosy had to alert everyone who got close to them that they were unclean. Likewise, sin leaves you with a stigma that will likely follow you the rest of your life. You may think that people should forgive you, and you may be right, but that doesn't take away the fact that you have a stigma that will follow you wherever you go. If you don't want the stigma that sin brings, you better not commit it. Sin always leaves an unwanted stigma from which you won’t be able to flee.

Second, sin leaves you lonely. The person with leprosy had to dwell alone “without the camp” all the days the plague was in them. You will find that sin always leaves you lonely. The sin that promised a good time and lots of friends will always leave you alone when its effects have ravaged your life. You better get rid of any sin if you don't want to be the lonely person whom nobody wants to be around.

Third, sin destroys your work. The clothing that the leper wore was to be burnt. Sadly, everything for which you worked in life will be gone when sin has ravaged your life. It doesn't matter how unfair you think it is, everything you do will be forgotten because sin destroys. Sin is like a wrecking ball that could care less how great a work it is destroying; it just devastates anything in its path. All the hard work, toil and great results will be forgotten once the wrecking ball of sin has hit your life. You better stay away from sin if you don't want your hard work to be destroyed.

Fourth, sin destroys your familial relationships. That clothing that was burnt was the only tie the family had with the leper. Once they were burnt, there were no more remembrances. Don't expect your family relationships to stay the same when you choose to live in sin. Sin changes your relationships, and the closeness you once had will be gone; the respect you once had will be totally destroyed. Sin always destroys family relationships.

The only way you will turn these repercussions around is a miracle from God. God is a miracle working God and can turn sin’s effects around, but He first expects repentance before He does His work to cleanse and restore your life to usefulness. Simply put, do right and you'll never have to worry about suffering sin’s repercussions.