Scripture informs us that the little foxes spoil the vines. Our lives are full of little foxes. At this point I take advantage to reiterate that, in the holy perfection of God, anything that is less than truth, less than the ideal qualifies as sin. We commonly forget that sin need not be something gross, ugly and damaging at severe levels, but may be something quite human like a kind of pride, or a bit of prejudice, or evasion of duty. The list of sophisticated but wrong conducts can be made long and wrong. They appear differently to different persons. In 1854, Henry David Thoreau wanted his readers to think rather well of mankind. In Walden he wrote that: the natural world is filled with an infinite and unaccountable friendliness. In 2010, Gordon Grice, in Deadly Kingdom, found the world less friendly, even in those creatures thought to be harmless. He wrote that some were murderous as crocodiles, bears, sharks, but what about bunnies that have taken off fingertips, and swans, with a blow of their beaks, have killed children? Brad Leithauser, book reviewer, wondered if Thoreau, having more information, might reconsider his observation. Which of the two is correct? Is life friendly or competitive leading to violence? We find it difficult to find truth and right.
We argue that the best people in the society search for truth and live by the truth they discover. We argue that as love is in the character of God, so is holiness. Holiness is truth in the kingdom of God – not to be sullied either mildly or severely. Articles and discussions have been generated for decades on the light blottings of human nature that may create large loss to man and society. Dan Ariely lists many of them in his book, The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty. Here are the persons I call, The Fudgers. They cheat on their tax reports (in the billions of dollars); cheat on their families (affairs on the side); cheat on their bosses (calling in sick when they are not, or taking paper belonging to the office, cheat on the speed laws, and the like). Currently there is extensive discussion about the deliberate errors in job resumes, of cheating on Wall Street, and various other shenanigans. One fellow knew he got excessively angry, endangering his wife, but felt he was not at fault because she didn’t respond to him as he had ordered. His orders were excessive and selfish. He saw her as in the wrong. Even if she were, the answer to the problem is not in physical enforcement. Most marriages that fail do so because of the little foxes in them.
The reviewer of Ariely’s book wrote: Ariely and his colleagues explored these [dishonest] behaviors in experiments that offered students a chance to earn cash by filling out a mathematical worksheet. The more problems they solved the more money they got. Though the experimenters did encounter some aggressive cheaters, it was the little chiselers who cost the most. ‘Because there were so many of them, we lost thousands and thousands of dollars to them – much, much more than we lost to the aggressive cheaters. (Minneapolis. Star-Tribune, 6/2/2012) It turns out that there are no innocent little sins. If vines are spoiled by little foxes or big ones – the vines are spoiled. If the consequences are the same from either cause then the cause can’t be weakened or strengthened by a word modifier. If I cheat on an examination, my teacher, likely respected by me, has been compromised, but not to the instructor’s knowledge. Most of the little sins are ugly in that they are not constructive for the future in a context of moving forward, but create slow rotting of programs and persons – especially for the person who interposes the foreign factors to positive and ordered contexts. Certainly I have been guilty of little sins that I would avoid, had I the privilege of living the events and circumstances over again. The only peace I found has been in the insight for my future, and forgiveness from God and others, so to restore the integrity that should characterize the human being made in the image of God. Sins, whether perceived as great or small, do violate both our meaning and God’s nature, so must be dealt with to gain fellowship fully with God, and feel secure in his promises. They need to be addressed for my own life, conduct and character – as well as to be faithful to others. There is a divine integrity that one should seek to gain so to become what God means for persons to be, even if no one other than God and self knows of it. We may remember that the total weight of little sins may be larger than that of gross sins. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020