“It’s not hurting anybody.”
Perhaps we think this more than we say it. Maybe it’s the habit we’ve kept hidden. The attitude we’ve justified. The compromise we’ve made. The words we’ve said when nobody else was around.
But sin rarely works that way. Sin is remarkably contagious. What we think is a private decision can become a public consequence.
Genesis 38:6-11 gives us a painfully honest picture of that reality.
6 Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death.
Genesis 38:6-11
8 Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.” 9 But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for his brother. 10 What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death also.
11 Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s household until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, just like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s household.
Judah’s family is already carrying the consequences of his choices. His firstborn son, Er, is described simply and devastatingly: “Er…was wicked in the LORD’s sight; so the LORD put him to death” (Genesis 38:7).
Then comes Onan. Onan was given a responsibility within his family, but he deliberately rejected it. He wasn’t simply making a private sexual decision. He refused the responsibility and design the Lord had placed before him because he wanted the benefits without the obligation.
The text calls this wicked (Genesis 38:10).
Then there is Judah. Judah doesn’t exactly stand outside the mess as the innocent father trying to fix everything. His decisions helped create the environment this family now operates in. Later in the chapter, his own moral failure becomes painfully obvious.
Different sins. Different people. Different circumstances.
But underneath them all is the same problem: selfishness and disobedience to the Lord.
And that’s a warning for us.
Sin rarely stays isolated, even though we wish it did.
We like to imagine that we can compartmentalize our sin. We can keep it in one little corner of our lives and make sure it doesn’t spill over into everything else. But that’s not how sin works.
That’s why holiness isn’t merely about protecting ourselves from consequences. It’s about protecting the people we love from the consequences of our choices.
The good news is that the story doesn’t have to end with a family marked by wickedness. The Gospel gives us a different possibility: a family marked by repentance, grace, forgiveness, and obedience.
What’s one area of disobedience you’ve been treating as “just my business”? Bring that before the Lord. Confess it. Ask Him to change it. And then take one concrete step toward obedience.
Because sin rarely stays isolated. But neither does obedience. What you choose to surrender to the Lord today may become part of the spiritual legacy your family carries tomorrow.
Thank you to today’s sponsors who help out Life Meets Theology. If you need something they have, please consider using them and helping us.
Life Meets Theology 