When Does It Matter?

When does it matter if you have a bad attitude? When does it affect someone other than you when you sin?

There are layers, sure. If you have a bad attitude while you are driving in your car all by yourself with your mask on when no one else is even on the road, your road rage isn’t immediately visible. If you are home alone and you get angry at something, and you start yelling, others won’t feel the brunt. If you lust, but only you and your internet service provider know what websites you’ve visited, that has different consequences than if you committed adultery and broke up families.

That said, if you are an angry person, an anxious person, a lustful person, not only will that be hard to hide, it is affecting the rest of your people. David’s sin affected the nation. Adam’s sin affected all of humanity. And we are connected in a variety of ways. My left hand might not know what my right hand is doing, but if my left hand grabs a semi-truck going 60 miles an hour, my right hand will find out.

In the church we are one body. While we make many statements, we also make one statement all together. God gives each Christian a testimony, He also is giving testimony through the church (Ephesians 3:10).

You can’t sit around your table at home and badmouth someone around the Lord’s table and think that it isn’t affecting us all, even if we can’t hear you. So also, your love and patience and joy in the flock is affecting us all, and that is part of the joy we share when we come together here. Communion is a corporate act, not just an individual one.

“Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:17).