Consequences of a Moral Tumble

by Randy Alcorn, Eternal Perspective Ministries, 39085 Pioneer Blvd., Suite 206, Sandy, OR 97055, 503-668-5200, www.epm.org - used by permission

Note from Lois: Excellent to print out and read often!  We all know too many marriages that have failed.

Whenever I feel particularly vulnerable to sexual temptation, I find it helpful to review what effects my action could have:

• Grieving the Lord who redeemed me
• Dragging His sacred name into the mud
• One day having to look Jesus, the Righteous Judge, in the face and give an account of my actions
• Following in the footsteps of those people whose immorality forfeited their ministries and caused me to shudder
• Inflicting untold hurt on my best friend and loyal spouse
• Losing my spouse’s respect and trust
• Hurting my beloved children
• Destroying my example and credibility with my children and nullifying both present and future efforts to teach them to obey God (Why listen to a man/woman who betrayed Mom/Dad and us?)
• If my blindness should continue or my spouse be unwilling to forgive, perhaps losing my spouse and my children forever
• Causing shame to my family
• Losing self-respect
• Creating a form of guilt awfully hard to shake – even though God would forgive me, would I forgive myself?
• Forming memories and flashbacks that could plague future intimacy with my spouse
• Wasting years of ministry training and experience for a long time, maybe permanently
• Forfeiting the effect of years of witnessing to my relatives and reinforcing their distrust for Christians that has only begun to soften by my example, but that would harden, perhaps permanently, because of my immorality
• Undermining the faithful example and hard work of other Christians in our community
• Bringing great pleasure to Satan, the enemy of God and all that is good
• Heaping judgment and endless difficulty on the person with whom I committed adultery
• Possibly bearing the physical consequences of such diseases as gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia, herpes, and AIDS; perhaps infecting my spouse, or, in the case of AIDS, even causing his/her death
• Possibly causing pregnancy, with the personal and financial implications, including a lifelong reminder of my sin
• Bringing shame and hurt to these Pastors, Elders, and Deacons (list names)
• Causing shame and hurt to these friends, especially those I’ve led to Christ and discipled (list names)
• Invoking shame and life-long embarrassment upon myself, reproach never erased!