In What Ways is Sin a Slippery Slope?
Sin is often depicted as a slippery slope, luring us down a path that grows increasingly treacherous. This imagery conveys an important spiritual truth: sin tends to breed more sin. Rarely does it remain an isolated act. Instead, one sin often leads to another in a downward spiral. The Bible uses various metaphors to illustrate this principle.
Sin Desensitizes Our Conscience
When we first sin, our conscience usually bothers us. But if we continue in that sin, it stops feeling so wrong. Our conscience becomes calloused and desensitized (1 Timothy 4:2). This moral numbness makes it easier to commit worse sins without restraint. We see this progression in individuals, societies, and eras of history. What was once shocking becomes accepted as normal. The conscience slides further down the slippery slope.
Sin is Addictive
Sin acts like an addiction. Addictions tend to grow stronger, demanding more from us. Sin has a similar effect. It hooks us, then slowly takes over. The indulgence must become more frequent or extreme to achieve the same excitement. Paul warns about this when writing, “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires” (Romans 6:12). Feeding sinful cravings leads us further down the slope.
Sin Breeds Rationalization
To continue sinning, we must reason around its wrongness. This mental maneuvering becomes its own downward pull. We see this when King David commits adultery and murder. Afterwards saying, “I have sinned against the Lord,” he seems repentant (2 Samuel 12:13). But months later, when another threat appears, he rationalizes, “I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul” (1 Samuel 27:1). Rather than turning from sin, his guilty conscience leads to more self-justifying sins.
Sin Corrupts Our Influences
Sinful choices affect who we’re around. The righteous and wise won’t partner with us in sin. But with their oversight removed, toxic associations increase. Paul acknowledges this, saying, “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals’” (1 Corinthians 15:33). Surrounding ourselves with bad influences pulls us further down the slope.
Sin Piles Up Consequences
Sin incurs consequences. These may start small but can accumulate. David’s adultery results in a dead husband, a stolen wife, a dead baby, family discord, national calamity, and haunting personal troubles. As with dominoes, one sin often topples many lives. The more we sin, the higher the relational, spiritual and circumstantial consequences pile up. This weight drags us down the slope.
Sin Can Become Habitual
Repeated sinful actions form habits in our character. Paul conveys this progression in Ephesians 4:19, speaking of those who have “given themselves up to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.” When sin becomes our habit, resisting it grows harder. As with an object sliding down an increasingly steep grade, habits propel the descent.
Sin Calls us Farther Down
Sometimes the natural consequences of one sin demand another to cover it up. David commits adultery, then he must murder the woman’s husband to conceal it. His deception then requires broader collusion. Soon a web of sins grows out of the initial one. Like a tangled barbed wire fence on a slippery slope, one sin connects to others dragging us down.
Sin Deepens Our Separation from God
Ultimately, sin causes a moral descent by distancing us from God. It disrupts our intimacy with Him, dulling our spiritual senses. Persisting in sin can utterly cut off His voice. As our communication with God fades, we slide further. The loss of this divine tether allows unchecked descent. That’s why Scripture says, “your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God” (Isaiah 59:2).
Sin Deceives Us about the Slope
Through the descent, sin deceives us about the gradient. As the terrain grows more severe, our vision gets foggy. Like a thick gravitational pull, sin clouds our judgment. We don’t realize how far we’ve fallen. Apostle Paul warns, “Let no one deceive you with empty words… Because of these [sins], the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 5:6). Blinded to sin’s true trajectory, we slide farther.
Sin Leads Step-by-Step
The slippery slope imagery suggests we fall suddenly. But more often, it’s incremental descent. Describing sin, James says, “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:14-15). Sin grows gradually from idea, to attraction, to conception, to birth, to maturity. Each step takes us lower before the final plunge.
Sin Creates a Stronger Craving
Sin promises satisfaction but actually stimulates deeper hunger. Engaging a lust or anger problem brings temporary relief but soon inflames those passions. Paul notes this cycle, saying, “by making provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” we actually open ourselves to heightened sinful “passions” (Romans 13:14). Thus, caving to sin signals our cravings to become amplified, pulling us down the slope.
Sin Makes Future Temptation Stronger
Giving in to one temptation often strengthens others. It’s as if our willpower gets fatigued, making it easier to yield again. Also, entertaining the initial temptation seems to welcome others. Commentator Matthew Henry noted, “He that, in the morning, made light of the first temptation, will be less able to resist the second; and thus it is by degrees that hard-mouthed horses are made.” Each small surrender leads to another, sliding us downward.
Sin Distorts Our Judgment
In the heated emotions of temptation, judgment gets clouded. Things clearly understood sinfully in the past get confused. Cravings rise and logic gets blurry. Under sin’s influence, forbidden things can suddenly seem reasonable. Such distortion pulls us downward. As John Piper writes, “The more we see sin as sweet, the more we slide into the darkness.” Embracing sin as less offensive deceives us into sliding farther.
Sin Increases Our Guilt
The shame of sin leads to hiding from God. After doing wrong, Adam and Eve “hid themselves from the presence of the Lord” (Genesis 3:8). Unconfessed guilt distances us from the cure of grace. So sin compounds, lacking exposure to the light. This vicious cycle drives the descent, as eighteenth-century commentator John Gill wrote: “Guilt fills them with terror; this puts them on hiding themselves, and so their sins are continued in and increased.”
Sin Can Fuel Compounding Crimes
Sin often cascades into multiplying offenses. Stealing money may require falsifying records, then lying to cover it up. Each new layer compounds the problem. And as people get ensnared in the web of deception, collective wrongdoing spreads. Other examples include violent crimes escalating when offenders panic or eliminating witnesses. The snowball effect propels downward movement.
Sin Can Lead to Increasingly Perverse Acts
When ordinary sins lose their ability to shock the conscience, perversion grows. Paul noted this progression in Romans 1, starting with those who “dishonored their bodies,” followed by “shameless acts,” culminating in those who commit “things that should not be mentioned” (v24, 26-27). When basic sensuality fails to satisfy, people often dive deeper into perversion. This suction force pulls them down the slope.
Sin Often Breeds More Sinful Thoughts
Sinful choices infect our mind. David’s adultery exposes this danger. Having taken someone else’s wife, lustful cravings now consume him. He later takes more wives and concubines. The initial sinful thought evidently took root, spreading sinful desire. James 1:15 captures this pattern: “desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin.” Sin internally multiplies before manifesting in more wicked behavior.
Sin Can Lead to Pain Dulling Our Conscience
When the painful consequences of sin weigh on our conscience, new relief is tempting. Like a person taking drugs to numb their guilt, we may seek escape in more sin. Though short-term relief comes, the strategy worsens the overall problem. David seems to use alcohol for this effect, as after his sins Nathan declares, “you have struck down Uriah with the sword… and have taken his wife to be your wife” (2 Samuel 12:9). Numbing pain through more sin deepens the pit.
Sin Often Compounds Across Generations
Sin’s effects outlive the initial perpetrator. David’s adultery produces long-lasting family discord. Generational sins afflict entire societies. When the Israelites worship idols it provokes God’s judgment on succeeding offspring. Environmental damage harms generations unborn. The compounding impact of sinful choices condemns people still down the slope.
Sin Can Unleash an Unstoppable Force
Giving in to sin is like breaching a dam. Once broken, the onrushing current gains force. This momentum makes retreat difficult. Describing the wicked, Peter said, “A dog returns to its vomit, and a sow is washed and then returns to wallowing in the mud” (2 Peter 2:22). When persistent sin breaks restraint, turning back against the current becomes exhausting if not impossible. Like a landslide, sin gains momentum.
Sin Spreads More Sin Through Cursing
Sin often provokes coarsened speech toward others. Harsh words spread negativity, provoking sin in return. David and his men likely picked up the crude language of their enemies. Soon base cursing flows freely within Israel. James 3:9-10 condemns this, saying, “With [the tongue] we curse people who are made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.” Foul language spreads sin.
Sin Can Lead to Rebellion Against Conviction
Those sliding into sin sometimes resent the pull back toward righteousness. Rather than humbly correcting their course, they dig their heels in. God’s efforts to “bring Jacob back to Him” are met with hostility (Isaiah 27:12). People set on their downward trajectory actively resist outside help. This rebellion calcifies their direction, propelling further descent.
Sin Often Spreads by Neglecting Wise Counsel
On the slippery slope we lose godly counselors willing to speak into dangerous choices. This loss speeds the slide. Rehoboam’s arrogant leadership led his kingdom downward. The land was strong when Solomon started. But Rehoboam forsook the wisdom of elders for foolish friends saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it” (2 Chronicles 10:1-14). Without wisdom’s brakes, folly accelerates the skid.
Sin Can Lead to Blaming and Avoiding God
Those persisting in sin often avoid conviction by finding fault with God. After starting their slide, Adam and Eve imply God failed them and blame His gift as the real problem. Today, some escape responsibility for their sins by blaming God’s unfairness, hypocrisy of Christians, or inability to stop evil. Such accusations attempt to excuse moral descent, when true repentance would place blame with the perpetrator.
Sin Can Spread Through a Movement
Sinful thinking sometimes filters through movements. Paul warns against those having secretly slipped in among the Colossians, saying “they delight in false humility” (Colossians 2:18). Whole churches slid into harmful patterns. Diotrephes led people astray by “spreading malicious nonsense” and “refusing to welcome the brothers” (3 John 1:10). Shared sin becomes ingrained in cultures, propelling group downfall.
Sin Can Lead to Despair Over Our Condition
Those lost in sin sometimes conclude they’re beyond hope. Futility sets in, worsening the despair. Sailors stuck in a storm eventually stop trying to save the ship. Apathy compounds the disaster. This abandonment to circumstances allows sin’s currents full control. Paul mentions those who sink to “sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity with a continual lust for more” finally reaching “despair” (Ephesians 4:19).
Sin Can Lead to the Denial of Sin
Mired in persistent sin, some attempt escaping guilt by denying sin’s reality. This philosophical move justifies moral anarchy. Jude says the ungodly follow this path, “perverting the grace of our God into licentiousness and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:4). If even Jesus cannot define sin, then no restraints remain. This denial becomes the final downward acceleration.
Sin Can Culminate in the Unforgivable State
For individuals ultimately hardened in unrepentance, Jesus warned of an unforgivable state known as blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Attributing God’s power to Satan attempts excusing oneself from divine conviction. But Jesus solemnly warns, “whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven” (Mark 3:29). This constitutes arrival at the pit where no escape remains possible.
Conclusion
This downhill imagery illustrates an important spiritual dynamic. One sin tends to breed more sins in a treacherous slide. By highlighting factors accelerating this descent, God’s Word reminds us of sin’s progressive nature. Knowing its tendency to gather speed and momentum safeguards us against those initial compromises leading downward. Clinging closely to God through repentance keeps us from the path of increasing destruction.