The Wages of Sin — Part Three

Can I be constantly happy?  Can I ride above the storm clouds of my life?  Buoyancy in a life without Christ is a very difficult and finally impossible thing to maintain.  The accumulation of negative circumstances can mount up and sink the overburdened soul.  A virtual multitude of enemies will arise and challenge the confession of good things.

In the camp of Jesus Christ, things are dramatically different.  A Christian’s buoyancy is not predicated by circumstances manufactured here on terra firma, but rather by Christ Jesus and the promises of God that emanate from heavenly places.  Believers are instructed to divest themselves of the world’s sinful pleasures, then invest in the beautiful pleasures of the redeemed.  In Christ Jesus, you can ride above the storm clouds, where the sun is always shining.  We are directed in I Thessalonians 5:18:

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Psalms 118:24:

This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

This kind of supernatural buoyancy is only found in King Jesus.  Have you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ the King of Glory?  Would you like to be forgiven of all your sins?  Would you like a purpose that’s bigger than your circumstances?  I have good news!  Today is your day of salvation.  Click onto “Further With Jesus” for instant entry into the Kingdom of God.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Genesis 4:7:

If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door....

GOD SAID, Galatians 6:7:

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

GOD SAID, Job 4:8:

Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.

GOD SAID, Romans 6:23:

For the wages of sin is death;...

MAN SAID: Sin is an old, archaic term that has no relevance in today’s erudite society.  The term is a throwback to the Bible, a book that also has no real relevance.

Now THE RECORD.  This feature is Part Three in the series of the Biblical principle of the wages of sin.  The relevancy of this principle is truly staggering, and just another daunting proof of the supernatural nature and inerrancy of the Word of God.  What does disobedience in the form of crime, pornography, homosexuality, adultery, pedophilia, incest, fornication, alcohol, drugs, purloining (wasting an employers’ time), usury, divorce, hatred, bitterness, slothfulness, and many more actually cost?  Unfortunately, even though you may not have participated in a particular sin, you will absolutely be directly impacted by it.  What any family member does has direct impact on the rest of the family.  As a member of the common Adamic family, what our brothers and sisters do will be felt by all of us.

The following excerpts from Part One and Two are foundational to these messages:

Consider the following passages.  John 8:34:

Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.

Romans 6:17-18:

17  But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

18  Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

Disobedience and sin are synonymous, and if we choose to be disobedient, we must serve sin with the literal sweat of our brows, and if not repented of, in eternal punishment.

Is it possible that if you serve Mr. Sin, the wages he will actually pay you will be the literal subtraction of life?  Remember, “the wages of sin is death.”

A simple concept to remember in this series is the one of employment.  A person takes a job agreeing to sacrifice so many hours a day in exchange for wages.  In essence, you give hours of your life, which cannot be replaced, in exchange for a paycheck.  You give life for cash.  When you give up your cash, you are in fact giving away part of your life.  Imagine that when someone or something takes money from your wallet they are very literally taking part of your life.  In this series, we will be measuring the wages of sin. [End of quote]

This feature deals with the ongoing national and global tragedy of divorce and illegal drugs.  How much does it cost the average American household?  The costs of various offences against the Word of God outlined in this series are surely not exhaustive, and there may be some redundancies in the calculations, but overall I believe they are if anything, understated.

The Lord Jesus Christ outlines God’s position on the issue of divorce in the following verses:

Matthew 5:31-32:

31  It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:

32  But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

Matthew 19:3-9:

3  The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?

4  And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,

5  And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?

6  Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

7  They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?

8  He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.

9  And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.

Carnal man, of course, wants nothing to do these commandments.  The wages of his disobedience are truly devastating.

The following excerpts are from the research of P.F. Fagan and R. Rector in the report titled “The Effects of Divorce on America:”                                                                                                                        

Each year, over one million American children suffer as their parents divorce.  Moreover, half of all children born in wedlock this year will see their parents divorce before reaching their eighteenth birthday.  This fact alone should give policymakers and those whose careers focus on children reason for pause.

Social science research is showing that the effects of divorce continue into adulthood and affect the next generation of children as well.  If the effects are indeed demonstrable, grave, and long‑lasting, then something must be done to protect children and the nation from these consequences.  Reversing the effects of divorce will entail nothing less than a cultural shift in attitude, if not a cultural revolution, because society still embraces divorce in its laws and popular culture, sending out myriad messages that “it's okay.”

It is not.  Mounting evidence in the annals of scientific journals details the plight of the children of divorce.  It clearly indicates that divorce has lasting effects which spill over into every aspect of life.  For example:

• Children whose parents have divorced are increasingly the victims of abuse and neglect.  They exhibit more health, behavioral, and emotional problems, are involved more frequently in crime and drug abuse, and have higher suicide rates.

• Children of divorced parents more frequently demonstrate a diminished learning capacity, performing more poorly than their peers from intact two‑parent families in reading, spelling, and math.  They have higher dropout rates and lower rates of college graduation.

• Divorce generally reduces the income of the child's primary household and seriously diminishes the potential of every household member to accumulate wealth.  For families that were not poor before the divorce, the drop in income can be as much as 50 percent.

• Religious worship, which has been linked to health and happiness as well as longer marriages and better family life, is less prevalent in divorced families.

Such evidence should give all Americans reason to speak out on this problem.  If nothing is done, America will continue the downward spiral into social decay.

The effects of divorce are immense.  The research shows that it permanently weakens the relationship between a child and his parents and leads to destructive ways of handling conflict and a poorer self-image.  Children of divorce demonstrate an earlier loss of virginity, more cohabitation, higher expectations of divorce, higher divorce rates later in life, and less desire to have children.  These effects on future family life perpetuate the downward spiral of family breakdown.

Policymakers at the federal and state levels have ample evidence to lend weight to efforts to change the culture of divorce.  Even the legal system seriously neglects children’s interests.  State officials should greatly expand effective marriage-education and divorce-prevention programs.  They also should end the legal status of “no fault” divorce for parents who have children under the age of 18.

Divorce has significant negative economic consequences for families.  The breakup of families leaves one parent trying to do the work of two people – and one person cannot support a family as well as two can.  The result is decreased household income and a higher risk of poverty.

Almost 50 percent of households with children undergoing divorce move into poverty following the divorce.  Some 40 percent of families on AFDC are divorced or separated single-parent households.  [End of quote]

According to the articles written in the year 2000, the U.S. government spent $150 billion per year to subsidize and sustain single-parent families.  Adjusting at 3% per annum, this year the cost to the American people would be $190 billion.

Science News, in a 2007 article titled “Divorce Is Not Ecofriendly,” weighed in with the following:        

When couples split and form additional households, it dramatically boosts the consumption of water, land, energy, and other resources.  In many parts of the world, such resources are becoming severely limited, says Jianguo Liu, an ecologist at Michigan State University in East Lansing.

In the year 2000, nearly 15 percent of U.S. households were headed by divorced people, U.S. Census Bureau data suggest.  The separation of families aggravated urban sprawl, boosting the number of households by more than 6 million and increasing the number of rooms to be heated and cooled by almost 36 million, says Liu.

Using survey data gathered in 2005, Liu and Yu estimate that divorce increased water use in the United States that year by more than 627 billion gallons, at a cost of nearly $3.7 billion.  Also, the team reports that divorce boosted electricity consumption that year by about 73.5 billion kilowatt‑hours – about 2 percent of the nation's electricity use—at a cost of nearly $7 billion.  [End of quote]

Of course, these costs are not spread out evenly across all American households; but for our simple calculations they are.

When you take the $190 billion and add to it the sum of $3.7 and $7 billion listed above (adjusting to 2008 numbers of $11.7 billion), the total of the divorce tax levied on the American people is $201.7 billion.  Now divide that number by the 124,521,886 U.S. households.  The cost per house is roughly $1,620.  This cost to each household of $1,620, when divided by the average household income of $47,034, yields 3.4% divorce tax.  Like it or not, we must participate.