Just mark it down right now: the devil is a liar. He says our sin is so small that it won’t affect us, and our good works are so insignificant that they won’t impact anyone else. But there is no such thing as an action without a reaction. In God’s kingdom, everything matters. Here’s how…

Every sin matters.

For thousands of years, people who lived during the time of the Old Testament were taught to abide by certain laws and ordinances. But when the Son God came to earth as a human, he brought an expanded teaching. No longer is it just an outward conformity to the law that matters, your heart has to be in it. The part of you that nobody else sees matters.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus takes the rules and presses them deeper into the soil of our souls. It’s not enough to keep your hands from murdering; you have to keep your heart from hating. You can’t check the box of morality just because you’ve managed to keep your body from immorality because God wants your heart to be pure and 100% free from lustful thoughts. It’s not enough to eliminate the “big sins” that other people can see; Jesus wants every part of our being to belong to him. It’s not just love the Lord with your Sunday morning, your clean record, and your adultery-free marriage, but “love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength” (Mark 12:30).

Every sin matters. There is no sin so small that isn’t capable of ruining your life.

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