Patterns of wrongdoing rarely appear suddenly.

“Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

—Letter XII, Screwtape to Wormwood, The Screwtape Letters.

 Small, repeated concessions—a desire indulged just once becomes habit, a boundary shifted. What begins as temptation, if entertained, finally erupts into action. Greed, covetousness, lust, or even murder take shape when someone decides to walk the path of crime. The criminologist observes this process with the language of determinants: external pressures, social environment, and personal choice. The Christian interprets the same pattern as the slow hardening of the heart toward God. 

Christianity teaches that sin takes root even before the crime is carried out. Anger is judged as murder in the heart, lust as adultery in intention. The distinction is clear: crime measures outward harm, sin measures inner rebellion. 

A plea of “not guilty” in court may succeed or fail on technical grounds, but the reality of sin is not suspended by legal maneuvering. Where the courtroom determines liability, the conscience—illuminated by Scripture—testifies to deeper responsibility. A criminologist measures the damage to the community. A Christian measures the damage to the soul. Reconciling both requires facing sin honestly, accepting justice where due, and seeking the mercy that law alone can’t provide. Sin is never private, even when committed in secret; it endangers the larger body.

We are not hopeless. 

The law restrains evil, but only the gospel transforms the sinner.

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). 

Prayer: 

O Lord, our heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting God, you have brought us safely to this day: Defend us by your mighty power that we may not fall into sin nor run into any danger; and that, guided by your Spirit, we may do what is righteous in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen (BCP)