The Victimless Crime

He went in and stood before his master, and Elisha said to him, “Where have you been, Gehazi?” And he said, “Your servant went nowhere.” 2 Kings 5:25

One of the greatest lies I told myself in my drug use, was that if no one ever found out, then I was hurting no one. Mine is a victimless crime. I thought I could use drugs, hide it, eventually stop, and then just walk away with no one knowing or caring. This, of course, was absurd. In becoming addicted, I was destroying myself but still couldn’t stop using drugs. My self-destruction didn’t happen in a vacuum though. Eventually my sickness – and my drug use – became apparent to everyone around me. I lost my job, wrecked my marriage, and found that I’d wandered from God. That thing that I thought I’d just walk away from with no one ever knowing, wrecked my life and caused terrible hurt to those I was supposed to love the most.

We can’t embrace self-destructive behavior without inviting self-destruction. This is the lesson of today’s passage, which tells of the prophet Elisha’s servant, Gehazi. In the story, Elisha healed a man named Naaman of his leprosy. In return, Naaman tried to reward Elisha financially, but Elisha refused. After Naaman left, Gehazi followed Naaman and told him that Elisha had changed his mind about the reward. Naaman gave Gehazi money and clothing, which he intended to keep secretly. I’ll get what I want, and no one will ever know. For his treachery, Gehazi was afflicted with leprosy.

We often think we can embrace sin – whether it’s porn, drugs, or an inappropriate relationship – and then just eventually walk away unscathed. We think we can dance close to the fire without getting burned. No harm if no one finds out. Our sin though, always hurts us and injures our relationship with God. This, we cannot do in a vacuum. Our sickness eventually touches all our relationships in some way. Even if we can keep our secret for a while, that doesn’t mean we’re not hurting those we’re supposed to love the most.

One of the first things we must do, if we desire healthy relationships, is to embrace rigid honesty with ourselves, doing whatever it takes to cut habitual sin out of our lives. If we genuinely love those around us, we must do whatever it takes to avoid and abandon those behaviors that hurt them.