EZRA‬ ‭10‬:‭44‬ ‭‬‬

Man is quick to dismiss his sin, but the scripture records each and every person who defiled Israel’s relationship with God through intermarriage. Out of tens of thousands, there were only 111 men who did this. Yet, they were enough to be an egregious sin. Their tiny amount was enough to be a toxic amount that defiled an entire nation. It was worth recording their names and calling them to repentance. Today, we don’t have churches in the tens of thousands, so when even one or two people in a church bring sin into their community, the lesson follows that the whole church is in need of repentance. Especially, as it was in Israel, if the sun is at the top with those who have been called to be church workers. All this is to say that we should not dismiss the effect of sin on our relationship with God by diminishing it to that of a personal decision. We must be strikingly bold about it and the need to remove it from our lives and our cultures, lest they all fall down with it.