My younger son has four little teeth. They look so innocent and cute, the tiny things, BUT, when he bites, which tends to happen when he is teething, my goodness, there is nothing cute or innocent about that bite, and the pain does not exactly feel small or cute either! (Incidentally, I had been meaning to write the blog post on this topic for a while now, but had been dragging my feet, or should it be dragging my fingers? Then this morning, while I was having one of those slightly rare moments where I was relaxing on the sofa, he crawled up to me and bit me on the leg, just above the knee … Ouch! Well, it certainly was an effective reminder to get up and write this post about the little teeth. Whatever it takes to get me going right? Sigh.

His bites also remind me of the bite of some tiny little insects called sand flies, which are one of those creatures that look small and harmless, but when they attack you, they take no prisoners, and clothing does not stop them, neither do nets. Their bites feel like being pinched in multiple places by someone with really sharp nails. Plus, they leave some small but not-so-pretty scars in their wake.

Now, where am I going with all this? Well, this reminded me of the way we categorise sin. We find some sins horrific and unforgivable, and are quick to condemn the perpetrators of such acts, but there are others we tend to let slide. We think of these sins as the little, harmless sins. As such, even if we commit one of these seemingly harmless sins, we don’t feel too bad about it. An example of one of such apparently small sins is lying. Recently I saw a post online, which was probably a joke, but it got me thinking. It was about a teenage boy, who for the sake of this story, we shall call Z. Z had been out till late and when he got home, his father asked where he had been. Z said he had been at his friend’s house. So Z’s father proceeded to call about four of Z friends and asked each of them where Z was. The reply he got from all of them except one was “Oh, yes he was here, he just left a few minutes ago”. The last one, when asked, actually pretended to be Z, and said “Hello daddy, I’m still here, but I’ll be home soon”. The question at the end of the story was something like “what should I do with these friends?” I wish I could find the post, but it was one of those Facebook things, and unfortunately, it has been quite hard to track down. Incidentally though, most of the comments on the said post were of the opinion that these were great friends, who “had his back”, and he should “hold them tightly”. Which somewhat implied that people thought that what his friends did was actually a good thing. Now, maybe it’s because I’m a parent now (or maybe I’m just a sorry spoil sport), but if such an incident actually happened in real life, and Z happened to have been kidnapped or attacked on the way home from wherever he had actually been to, or was in a dangerous situation, those seemingly innocent little lies would have lulled his parents into a false sense of security. This would have probably meant that they may have hesitated to take any further action. In a situation where the response time was critical, the consequences could have been disastrous.

Going back to the issue of small and big sins, if we go by the Word of God, Proverbs 12:22 (KJV) says “Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight”.

Yes, the Bible actually uses the word “abomination”, the same word used for some of the “big” sins we tend to condemn. Revelations 22: 14 -15 (NLV) says “Those who wash their clothes clean are happy (who are washed by the blood of the Lamb). They will have the right to go into the city through the gates. They will have the right to eat the fruit of the tree of life. Outside the city are the dogs. They are people who follow witchcraft and those who do sex sins and those who kill other people and those who worship false gods and those who like lies and tell them.”

So both liars and murderers will be cast outside the city. A sobering thought.

Sadly we tend to assume something is harmless because at that point in time, we may not see the repercussions of that act. When we tell “little” lies, we chip at the trust people have for us gradually. Even to kids, there’s no need to lie to them just because we think they won’t find out at that point. They will eventually find out though. Unfortunately, over time, it may affect how much they trust us. This can easily become quite the slippery slope as they grow older. Plus, when we spread lies, we never know how far they can go, or how far people will take them, so why do it?‎

Think of how you feel when you find out someone has been lying to you. Do you feel hurt? Anger? Disappointment? Distrust? Does it ever feel nice? Think of the way you feel when you are watching a movie, and two people are having a conversation in the movie. One person is lying, but does not know that the person he is lying to actually knows the truth. You (the viewer) also know the truth, and you know that the other person knows the truth, but the person telling a lie doesn’t know this. As such, the liar ignorantly keeps spinning a bigger and bigger lie web, making things worse. As you watch, you cringe for this person, but they are totally oblivious to what’s going on. And it’s just awful to watch…  I guess the next time we are tempted to lie, it would be a good idea to imagine that the person we want to lie to already knows the truth or will soon find out, and hopefully, the thought of looking like a fool may put us off lying.

Aside from lying though, there are a number of other “small” sins we feel are excusable, and sometimes I wonder why this is the case. From a Biblical point of view, sin can be likened to a virus. Once you have it, you have it. It doesn’t matter if it was just a small cut that let the virus in, or if it was a few particles of the virus that caused one to be infected. That is enough to do harm. I recently read a study on Science Daily that said that just one virus particle is enough for someone to catch a disease. And when you consider how tiny a virus particle can be, that is quite scary.

The Bible buttresses this point in James 2:10 – “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” The Message translation actually elaborates a bit more, but basically the point is that all sin is harmful. It’s a bit like a “come one, come all” scenario. In a way, this serves as a humbling mechanism for me, realising that in the sight of God, my sin is not necessarily smaller than another person’s sin. Acknowledging that no matter how small I think my sin is, it is hurtful, I am still incapable of saving myself, and I still need God’s saving grace. Just as much as the person with the seemingly ‘big’ sin.

A key lesson I’ve learnt is not to assume that just because a sin seems small and innocent, it cannot cause great harm. And just because I think it won’t cause harm does not mean that it won’t. It may not cause much harm in the short run, but all sin causes harm in the long run, and usually, not just to the malefactor, but to others. If it’s wrong, it’s wrong. This is where God helps us. As Christians, He tries to stop us just before we are about to put a little toe in to test the waters, but sometimes we ignore the voice, and from a little toe, it becomes the whole foot, then the whole leg, and soon the whole body, and we find ourselves drowning, going down down down. And then just like in the case of King David, what started off as simply looking at a woman (initially by accident actually, as when he came up to the roof, he probably did not go there with the intention of being a Peeping Tom), ended up with murder.

In summary, always remember, as‎ Song of Solomon 2:15 says, it is “the little foxes that spoil the vineyards”. The little foxes.