Does every sin affect other people? Clearly Adam's sin in the Garden of Eden affected everyone.  And clearly if you murder someone, or commit adultery, it affects others.  But are there sins which do not affect other people?

What I am wondering for this question is if every sin affects other people.

As an extreme example, suppose God has spoken a promise to me, and I doubt it for a moment, but then repent and have faith.  During my time of doubt, I never speak or do anything - it is all internal.  Would that sin affect others?



The reason I am asking is that often times, non-Christians define "evil" as that which does harm to another.  By this definition, they justify things which are explicitly forbidden in Scripture, because in their eyes, it doesn't affect anyone else.  I also often hear Christians define "sin" as that which does harm to another.  One of the many passages used to support this teaching is:


  Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. -Romans 13:10


Is "evil" defined as "that which harms another"?  If not, it seems like Christians need to stop using this secular definition in their teachings.
Personally, I am of the opinion that all sins affect those around us in at least the second degree, and they have a third degree effect on the whole world.

Here's the thought. In life you are either walking towards God or away from him. As you walk towards him you gain a docility of the spirit and become more Christ-like. If you walk away, you diminish in this.

So, if I decide that I am going to sin, "in private" that will still mean I have less of a disposition to Christ when in public. The lesser the disposition in public, the more likely I am to be less charitable with those around me, even if the sin is something completely unrelated. Thus, while we may not be hurting people directly, it is causing us to hurt them through second-hand folly.

(But, you say, what if one were to make amends before returning to the public? Well, what if, instead of making amends the same effort were put into prayer after never having sinned to begin with?)

I say that it affects us all in a "third degree" because the sins in the world make the world less righteous. Not only can it be said that you can never catch up to where you were had you not sinned to begin with, and that will carry over in both obvious and direct ways, and in more remote and indirect ways. One example might be that if you snap at someone, it may make that person more inclined to snap at another.

One might try to say, "but it would be but a drop in an ocean," and I would be inclined to agree but for the fact that there are almost 7 billion of us with droppers and all of us are putting a little in every day.