The beauty of harmless sin and the reflection of its true evil

The modern world is full of temptation and its become easy to consider some sins to be harmless, or perhaps not even sins at all, but is this actually the case? Is there such a thing as a harmless sin? Any inquiry into the concept of sin will quickly find the inquisitor in a depth above their own head as they learn that this topic has been one that has been philosophized over for not just centuries, but millennia. Books could be written on just what exactly is sin, and further, one might argue that the most influential book was written for just this purpose.

But I am not here to pontificate my own opinions and findings on the details of sin, but to examine the beauty of this so-called harmless sin, and it’s real effect on the self and the world. For the sake of simplicity, we will stick with the modern definition of sin, which is as such; An offense against moral or religious law.

So what exactly is a “harmless” sin, and further, what is, if any, the beauty of such a sin?

After thinking on this for several days, I am convinced that there is no such thing as a harmless sin, but perception is everything, and it would be a boring exploration if we were to conclude with that statement. In light of this, I will continue with the assumption that there is such a thing as a harmless sin, at least as far as my perception goes, and carry on from there. The best examples I can come up with are personal, and I can only imagine that we each have our own personal “harmless” sins that we are aware of, and there is no real benefit to bring all of those “harmless” secrets to light, merely to agree that they exists, at least we argue to ourselves as we talk ourselves into them.

And that’s they’re true beauty isn’t it? There exists a logical explanation for why we shouldn’t worry about such small things, and should rather focus on the larger things, right?

Except that perception changes by degrees, not steps. If we allow those beautiful, seemingly harmless sins into the pattern of our behavior, we become accustomed to them, and then the pattern of behavior changes, and just what we consider harmless shifts, ever so slightly, in such a direction that before even realize it, we must commit sins we even believe to be harmful if only in a vain attempt to keep the house of lies that we’ve built from crumbling around us.

John 14:6: Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

There is no more important truth than that which we tell ourselves. Do our motives for a particular behavior or action align us with what we believe to be ideal behavior, or do they create a pattern that works against what we strive to be.

It can be difficult to tell, as subjectively there are many ways in which we fault in the opposite direction, for there are some activities that are truly harmless, that many would find sinful, perhaps even are sinful, yet we live in such a world as to accommodate such a little sin, having risen above the contexts that historically required it to be such a problem.

Its impossible for one to answer this question correctly, only truthfully, the distinction lying between what they honestly believe to be right, as its tested against the frame of time.

And therein lies the reflection of its true evil. There exist such a layer between good and evil, where the tides rise high, and the colors run gray. its this area is where we humans most often play, Trying to determine goodness from evil, often unable to distinguish between the two.