Satan's Devices Pt. 2: "It's just a little sin, no big deal!"

This temptation and device that Satan uses is one that is common to all.  We tend to justify ourselves by this distorted reasoning.  The thing to remember is that small sins still have great consequences.  Consider when Adam and Eve ate from the tree in the garden.  What a harmless little thing, right?  As a result, "just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned" (Romans 5:12).  That's just great, now the whole world is infected.  Ultimately, because "the wages of sin is death," whether great or small, God did not spare His own Son who took on both great and small sins (2 Cor. 5:21).  Why would we think He should spare us?

We must also remember that if we justify our smallest sins, we then make room to commit greater sins.  Puritan preacher Thomas Brooks writes, "When a man hath begun to sin, he knows not where, or when, or how he shall make a stop of sin."  This seems due to the fact that we often make excuses for greater sins because we think it's too late to turn back.  If you're already up to your waist in it, what difference does it make to sink another inch or two, right?

In addition, small sins are usually the most dangerous because we don't make them out to be a big deal as we would a greater sin.  So what ends up happening is we let them build up until it weakens and destroys us.  It's much like a person's physical health.  Someone who is a little over-weight is usually less concerned about their health than a person with cancer.  They tend to sweep it under the rug until it becomes too late, where they find their arteries blocked.  So is the person who is not concerned about temptations to sin in small ways.

Whether great or small, the weight of our sin offends the Living God and should help us next time not to be too quick to give our excuses and justifications.  Sin, no matter how small, is a big deal to the God-Man who was tortured and crucified by it.