Thursday, May 29, 2008

The impact of your actions

Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:10).

If you don’t hurt anyone else, does it really matter how you live your life? What difference does it make if you choose to ride a motorcycle without a helmet? Who does it hurt if you want to live together instead of getting married? What’s the harm in telling a white lie if it spares someone’s feelings?

We would like to think that our actions don’t affect other people. The truth, however, is that everything we think, say and do has an impact on others. If you don’t wear a helmet while cycling, others who see you will be encouraged to imitate your behavior, putting them at increased risk for head injury in a crash; furthermore, if you are involved in an accident, the higher cost to treat your head injury will raise insurance rates for everyone insured by your company. If you choose to ‘live together’ instead of getting married, your risk for breaking up instead of lasting as a permanent couple rises by 50%, and if that break up does happen, both you and your partner will have a harder time investing in future relationships. White lies backfire when your friends realize that you are willing to bend the truth; they will be hesitant to trust what you are saying, and you will always wonder how many of them are feeding you lies in order to spare your feelings.

Some don’t think that viewing pornography hurts anyone; but supporting the industry encourages the performers to trade their dignity for money and risk contracting a variety of dangerous diseases; further, the person viewing the pornography is tempted to think of others as sex toys instead of individuals with feelings, which will certainly hurt intimacy in the bedroom. Some don’t think that there’s anything wrong with fibbing on a job application; but when there is a crisis at work and you fail to carry your weight because you don’t have the skills you claimed you did, the company will suffer financial loss, and all of the employees will see the effects in their paychecks.

God did not make up the Ten Commandments just because He’s God and wants things done His way. His rules are designed to build healthy relationships. The Commandments show us how to treat God with the respect He deserves, and how to deal with other people in a way that benefits everyone. Everything we do has an impact on others; we need God’s help to conduct ourselves responsibly at all times.

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