My good friend Mark Edge (we were roommates in college and co-workers in Argentina) posted an excellent article yesterday: “What To Do About Evil.” I’d encourage you to take a few moments and read that post.

While a discussion of the problem of evil would definitely be an interesting one, I wanted to comment on something that Mark mentioned along the way. He referred to an article from CNN which said that

“If the church stopped consuming [porn], we would put a huge dent in it,” he [XXXchurch founder Craig Gross] said, referring to individual churchgoers.

Wow! The above statement is obviously opinion and probably a bit of an exaggeration, yet it still should give us pause for thought. How many other evils could that be said for? To what degree have church members allowed themselves to be sucked into the things of this world, helping to sustain the very things that war against God’s Holy Spirit?

It certainly made me think. I remember discussing Ephesians 6 with a group of teenagers, seeing that, because of the nature of spiritual warfare, our actions promote the cause of one of two bands: the forces of good and the power of evil. In the West, we don’t like to think of things in those terms, but it’s true. What can seem like an “innocent” sin to us is really part of a larger chain of effects that affect many people.

I think that’s why Paul and other New Testament writers put such an emphasis on fleeing evil and pursuing holiness. Our actions have consequences, some far beyond what we can visualize.