Benign Sins

     Sin can be likened unto cancer because both insidiously destroy the flesh. People think of the flesh as mankind's skin. Indeed, that is partially true. However, flesh is much more than skin deep. "The flesh" is doing things which displease God. Of course it is not the doing which is so disconcerting, but the willingness to disobey God. A partial list is even given:

Gal 5:19-21  "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,  Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

     Paul named the works of the flesh, but referred to how they are "manifested". In other words, iniquity is not outward but inward. Rather than the focus being on doing, it is the attitude within. The attitude is iniquitous, which is essentially people doing what they will rather than God's will. That inner defiance is obedience to the "law of sin":

Rom 7:25 "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."

     "The flesh" is that attitude of which I wrote, It is the conflict in opposition to what people know is right in their mind. Paul also says that "the law of sin "is in his "members" (Romans 7:23) - "the parts of the body" specifically (Strong's Dict.). Scripture refers to "the heart" often. Spiritual "hearts" are "the thoughts and feelings" of mankind. Those who are reprobate are without tender hearts; they are like beasts! (Titus 1:12).  Beasts live for self-satisfaction. Those with beastly flesh do as well.
     "The heart" is similar in symbolism to "the flesh."  It is not the pump for blood as "the flesh" is not merely epidermal layers. The heart is the emotive traits which only mankind has. They are the intense feelings of which only men are capable (and women too).
     Thus, "the flesh" is the intense desires which people have to do their own will even though they know inside that they are wrong. The moral compass is the conscience; what God calls "the soul" which only mankind has! The soul is important because it was what God breathed life into (Gen 2:7) after creating the body of Adam. Animals do not have souls! (I'm sorry dog-lovers.) God's "breath" was His Holy Spirit. It made the soul alive. Sin is what kills the soul, but Adam and Eve were only thinking of their actual flesh!
     The soul, or conscience, has extreme importance! Iniquity displaced the Holy Spirit of God with the first sin. Genetically, mankind is born with iniquity because of Adam's original sin. However, the soul belongs to God; it is His Temple (1 Cor 6:19). It is how Jesus can live within us Christians! He has no desire to cohabitate with sin, so God desires righteousness. The conscience, with each sin, must decide: Is this desire that I have what God wills for me? When people's will is superior to God's, the decision is sinful. Before the behavior even comes about, the decision process has already elevated one's own desires over God's will. Scripture indicates that the thought is the sin (Mat 5:28) because flirting with desire is adultery against God. Sin is that spiritual flirtation with evil, and is called "lust".
     Cancerous sin (my term) is when the flesh destroys itself. God does not abort eternal life; mankind miscarries all by himself! The willingness to sin is elevating oneself and trivializing God. That willingness leads to death of the soul.  It is the manifestation of our inner esteem: we are "as gods" because we can make our own decisions! Esteem of self (self-esteem) is overly evaluating ourselves - doing what we want and following our own hearts! Our spiritual system which we have, but the beast don't, is guilt. When our lusts run amuck, unless one is psychopathic (reprobate), guilt ensues. Guilt is the gravity of God to which our moral compass responds. The graver the sin, the more gravity which tugs at our moral compass. Murder is grievous for most people as is hatred. The lust of the eyes is somewhat less grievous because we do it so often, that it is not even a conscious decision. Mankind lusts sub-consciously because it is our nature inherited from Adam.
     Cancerous sin is knowing that something is grievously wrong, but doing it anyway, even knowing it is detestable to God. Those are abominations. The list from Galatians are mostly abominations. On the other hand, there are sins which are still against God but seem trivial. Because they are in vogue, I will pick on those with tattoos and piercings:

Lev 19:28 "Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord."

     Non-Christian don't care about God's will. Those benign sins are excusable because "they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34). Christians have an obligation to know the Word so that they know God's will. They are without excuse because the truth has been revealed to them. Seemingly trivial sins are ignored because they are not damning. Christians have liberty to sin, but if they are righteous, they should desire to do God's will.
     For some reason, it is not God's will that His people get tattooed nor pierced. Why would God even care about writing on the flesh and punching holes in it? Because it is His!

1 Cor 6:19-20 "...ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

     Christians mutilate their body by piercings and tattoos even though their flesh allegedly belongs to God. It seems that they have yet to sacrfice their hearts entirely to God because their desire exceeds God's will!  Christians are not to do things pagans do (Deut 18:9). Markings and piercings are what pagans do. God requires pure unblemished sacrifices (Lev 3:1). Since we are to be "a living sacrifice, we too, like the Lamb, best be unblemished! (Romans 12:1). Tattoos and piercings are decorating peoples' own "trees" and neglecting the Tree of Life who they are to "dress and keep".
     The command not to tattoo and pierce are "benign sins" (my terminology) because Christians don't think deeply enough to know what they do. It is not the destruction of the flesh (Jesus's redemption of it) so much, but that Christians bodies' belong to Christ because He paid for them! Honestly, Christians fail to consider that! We are not to sin, even benignly, because they are, regardless of our vanity, still objectionable to God!
     Mankind's problem is ourselves. We each are inclined to do our will. The Serpent  taunted Adam and Eve with the accusation, you will be "as gods" (Gen 3:5). Gods want appeasement. Peoples' flesh are their idols which appease themselves. Doing what one wills is rebellion against God if He has made His will plain. How much plainer can God be than with Leviticus 19:28? Christians do what they desire to do with no thoughts of God. Their moral compasses do not respond to God because the gravity of this type of sin doesn't deflect the needles of moral compasses. At one time, it did not for me either, but now it has. (My self-inflicted tattoo failed to take, I believe because God willed it not to!).
     Now for other "benign sins". There are many. One obtuse one is: "Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk." (Exod 23:19). Most people don't do that, but apparently the Hebrews did! Why is that action so distasteful to God that he made it a command? Doing that is disrespectful to the relationships between mother and offspring, and mankind and animals. It could just as easily been commanded, "Have respect to animals because they are for your use, not misuse!" In fact, their purpose was presented in the beginning!
     If a person is mean to animals, there may be no conscious thought that it is an affront to God, but it is regardless. Because people are not always kind to animals, their sin is benign. I have been mean to garden snakes because snakes are frightening to me. That is sinful but not damning just as piercings  and tattoos. However,  that does not excuse my heartlessness  nor your thoughtlessness.  Whether sins are grievous or not, it is still not God's decision, not ours!. Sanctification is the alignment of our will with God's. It is not to be done by force but because God desires honor. Because of grace, benign sins are not damning but are still reprehensible; it ignores God's will.