All of us have done stupid things without realizing what the consequences of our actions could be. Any action can cause a ripple effect, either positive, or negative. In Acts 5, the sin of one couple, Ananias and Sapphira, could have caused the spiritual death of the church. Acts 5 could have been the last chapter in the Bible if God wouldn’t have stopped the ripple effect of their lie.
They sold a plot of land and told the apostles that they gave the whole revenue, while they kept part of it. Nobody forced them to give everything. In fact, nobody even forced them to give anything. The early church wasn’t some kind of socialist or communist community. People gave voluntarily, yet they were sacrificial in their giving. The problem of Ananias and Sapphira was that they tried to look better than they really were, not that they only gave part of the money of the land sale. This almost created a ripple effect in the early church.
Sin short-circuits the work of the Spirit
The ripple effect of our sin will not only short-circuit the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It will also short-circuit the work of the Spirit in the community… the church. Now how does sin get a hold of our lives? First, we get drawn away by our sins. We start to give our sins more attention than anything else in our lives. Then we start excusing our sins and explain away the passages in the Bible that confront our sins.
Next, we become distant… We may still be in church, but we have withdrawn emotionally and avoid the contact with other people because we are afraid they might notice something and confront us. Finally, our hearts become hardened and we can even lie against the Holy Spirit in the same way as Ananias and Sapphira did it. Let’s allow the Lord to stop the ripple effect of our sins!
How to respond to sin in the community?
Now what do we do when we see that people – maybe even our friends – are involved in sinful lifestyles? First, we need to take sin seriously – in our own lives and in the lives of other believers. Paul says in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” The judgment for Ananias and Sapphira’s sin was a quick death. That was God’s way of protecting the future of the church. Usually, the effect of our sins is a slow death. But quick death or slow death… it’s pretty serious no matter what! We’re playing with fire if we are persisting in sin and run the risk of losing our salvation and eternal life.
Second thing is that we need to lovingly confront the person who is sinning. Galatians 6:1 says: “Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.” As believers we should care about the spiritual well-being of our fellow-believers. We can help others turn back from a path that leads to (spiritual) death!
The third and last thing is that we need to quickly forgive. The goal when we confront sin in the life in another believer is restoration. As soon as they repent of their sins, we should be quick to forgive them and restore them into the community. Note what Ephesians 4:32 says: “Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”
Let’s stop the ripple effect from our sins in our own lives and the church so that we can be spiritually healthy and the church can gain spiritual momentum!
This blog post is based on the message I preached on June 13 in Thousand Hills Hilversum as part of the It Starts With One series. Check out the message video here. It starts with a nice illustration of Greg Surratt, pastor of Seacoast Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Greg is also overseer of Thousand Hills International Church.
The Ripple Effect (“It Start With One” series) from Thousand Hills Int’l Church on Vimeo.