Does all sin effect everyone?

ImAllLikeOkWaitWat

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Theres certain sins that come to mind that we can clearly see don't effect other people directly. Things like inappropriate contentography, gluttony and many other types of sin that only seem to effect the person involved. My question is, is there any scripture that would lead us to believe that these type of sins only effect the sinner and not others? Or does all sin effect everyone even if not directly? I guess a sort of butterfly effect of sin?
 
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~Anastasia~

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Hello, and welcome to TT.

I'm not bringing a Scripture to mind offhand, but there certainly is that understanding in our Tradition that all sin affects the cosmos, so yes, in a sense it affects everyone, because it serves to further infect/pollute the world in which we live.

We do know from Scripture that the ground was cursed for the sake of Adam's sin, and that all creation groans in anticipation of its renewal, if that helps.
 
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thesunisout

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Theres certain sins that come to mind that we can clearly see don't effect other people directly. Things like inappropriate contentography, gluttony and many other types of sin that only seem to effect the person involved. My question is, is there any scripture that would lead us to believe that these type of sins only effect the sinner and not others? Or does all sin effect everyone even if not directly? I guess a sort of butterfly effect of sin?

The things we do can cause others to stumble and fall:

Romans 14:20-21

Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to let his eating be a stumbling block. 21It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything to cause your brother to stumble.

We shouldn't even do anything that appears evil to others, even if it isn't prohibited by the word of God

1 Thessalonians 5:22

Abstain from all appearance of evil

Here is the general principle:

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord

When we choose sin we are bringing death into our lives. If we are in sin, spiritually we are empty and have nothing to offer anyone except the death we are partaking in. One sin leads to another, and another, and another. There are no private sins because what is inside of you is going to come out and touch someone else. If it is death, death will come out of you. If it is life, life will come out of you.

An example I can give was, I was engaged in a sin that I felt wouldn't hurt anyone else. Well, right after I had partaken of it, I was met on the street by a Jehovahs witness. They started talking to me about their beliefs and because death was working in me, this anger came over me that I couldn't control. I ended up lashing out at them in anger and it was ugly. It was a terrible witness for Jesus Christ which probably hardened their heart to the gospel.

What is in us will come out:

Mark 12:34-35

You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. 35The good man brings good things out of his good store of treasure, and the evil man brings evil things out of his evil store of treasure

Jesus is drawing a contrast between wicked and righteous people, but there is a principle that applies to believers. If we are feeding on garbage, garbage is all we will have to offer. If we are feeding on Jesus Christ, people will see His light in us and be drawn into the Kingdom.
 
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Petros2015

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I guess a sort of butterfly effect of sin?

I think yes, very much so. inappropriate contentography for example affects interactions with the opposite sex, training yourself for instant gratification and the like and then responding with resentment or infidelity when those gratifications are not met. If you've been harassed online or in real life, treated as less-than, it probably stems from from things like that. "If you are not good for lust, what are you good for?" The same thing can be said for most sin which is a self-centering, pushing God and Christ and the Holy Spirit out. When we do that we push out Light and Love. So what is the impact on other people? Starting with those closest to us, it can be devastating. With most sin, we usually claim 'the right to it'. It is 'my right' to this or that. And we cling to these things. Often we deliberately involves others in our sins to justify them to ourselves.

I like this quote from Kallistos Ware:

"The doctrine of original sin means rather that we are born into an environment where it is easy to do evil and hard to do good; easy to hurt others, and hard to heal their wounds; easy to arouse men's suspicions, and hard to win their trust. It means that we are each of us conditioned by the solidarity of the human race in its accumulated wrong-doing and wrong-thinking, and hence wrong-being. And to this accumulation of wrong we have ourselves added by our own deliberate acts of sin. The gulf grows wider and wider. It is here, in the solidarity of the human race, that we find an explanation for the apparent unjustness of the doctrine of original sin. Why, we ask, should the entire human race suffer because of Adam's fall? Why should all be punished because of one man's sin? The answer is that human beings, made in the image of the Trinitarian God, are interdependent and coinherent. No man is an island. We are 'members one of another'(Eph. 4:25), and so any action, performed by any member of the human race, inevitably affects all the other members. Even though we are not, in the strict sense, guilty of the sins of others, yet we are somehow always involved.”

The Orthodox Way Quotes by Kallistos Ware


The good news is though, that it works in both directions. If Sin can have a butterfly effect, so too can Christ.
 
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ViaCrucis

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In some cases sin may be more obvious in how it affects others--If I lie I deceive a person, and they are thus deceived; or else they spot my lie and the trust between us is injured. But not all sin may be so obviously destructive; and yet at the heart of sin is always destruction. It affects me, and therefore my own relationship with God and my neighbor. Perhaps I hate my neighbor but keep that a deep secret hidden inside myself--even if it never shows itself outwardly (because I am quite good at hiding it) it is still destroying me, and as it destroys me and eats away at me it will be inevitable that it expresses itself somehow or in some way--my thoughts, my feelings, or even my words and actions will inevitably reflect the deep wrong inside of myself.

Not every sin has an obvious or immediate impact on others; but every sin that is not addressed does and will kill--and who I am in relation to others will be eroded and consumed by it.

-CryptoLutheran
 
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Doug Melven

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When people use inappropriate contentography they don't realize how it affects themselves and others.
Those who use inappropriate contentography only see others as sex objects.
Now that person will have a hard time establishing a relationship with someone.
The families and friends of those who use inappropriate contentography may be hurt by the actions of the user.
Those who use inappropriate contentography may rob someone else of having a satisfying relationship with them.
Those who use inappropriate contentography are contributing to an industry that is dedicated to abusing people and making it profitable for the people in the industry to continue abusing people.
Some of the victims of the inappropriate contentography industry only feel that they are sex objects and good for nothing else like fulfilling God's plan for there life or thinking that God loves them at all.
 
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