Conduct and Consequences (CC)

Starting with Conduct and Consequences: my mother would often say to us children, “God always forgives, man seldom forgives, nature never forgives.”  The point she was making is that conduct has consequences.  And no matter the circumstances as regards nature, the damage is done.

Now think of sin –  as I use the term here – as having two forms: wrongdoing and personal rejection. Wrongdoing is causing harm in some visibly active manner, while rejection is more psychological but no less real and no less hurtful. In fact, the degree of pain corresponds to the degree of love the rejected has for the other.

Let’s consider the first sin.  There is the act of disobedience – eating the forbidden fruit.  That was sin as wrongdoing.  The more consequential sin, though, was turning away from God, personal rejection.  And with God loving Adam and Eve with an infinite love, the “pain” their rejection “inflicted” was equally infinite.

Furthermore, we learn from Genesis that rejecting God’s love has tragic, far-reaching consequences. Our first parents upended God’s entire creation doing incredible damage to their own nature – and thus ours – and to the nature of the world as God intended it.  It is important to note here that this was less about God punishing, and more about the consequences of our conduct.  

Not only do we have Adam and Eve turning away from God we also have Israel subsequently repeating this sin over and over again. As a collective inheritance we are born with original sin.  And if we are honest, we admit that, as individuals, we too have repeatedly turned away from God’s overtures thus personally replicating our parents’ and Israel's conduct.