Let’s imagine that Alex tells Chris something untrue and unflattering about Billie. Are there potential further wrongs committed because of this?
· Chris may believe Alex and start treating Billie badly.
· Chris may also see Alex’s behaviour as an acceptable thing to imitate and start telling untrue and unflattering things to other people too.
· Alex and Chris may begin to gang up on Billie and recruit others to mistreating them.
· Billie may respond to the rumours by acting out in destructive ways because it’s expected of them.
· Billie may retaliate and start rumours against Alex.
Just one wrong action has set off a chain of other damaging actions, and no one is the kind of person they could be.
Romans 2 gives us two images of the way sin works. The first is like a contagion.
The language in the Greek is about “spreading”. It’s like a very contagious sickness was released into the world and no human is immune to it.
In the same way that being human means that we will get sick, being human means that we will sin.
The good news is that just as sin is contagious, so is integrity, obedience, grace and kindness. Jesus’ innocence and big act of obedience cleared the way for us to be declared innocent and to obey God ourselves.
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