You ever been so hurt by someone else’s sin that your own disobedience started to feel…justified?
I know I have.
Maybe it was the betrayal of a friend, the failure of a leader, or the cruelty of a stranger. They lied on you, manipulated, abandoned, or abused. And somewhere along the way, your heart whispered, “I deserve to be bitter.” “I deserve to clap back.” “I can do what I want now, because they crossed the line first.”
But let’s be clear: Someone else’s sin does not give you the right to sin.
That’s not how holiness works.
God doesn’t grade righteousness on a curve. He doesn’t call us to be holy if they are. He calls us to be holy because He is. (1 Peter 1:16)
Yes, what they did was wrong. Maybe even evil. But if their actions become your permission slip to act out of character with Christ, then you’ve stopped following Jesus and started following your pain.
You’re not avenging yourself—you’re chaining yourself to their disobedience. You’re allowing their rebellion to birth your own.
But sis, listen: you are not their sin. You are not what they did. And you don’t have to carry the weight of their wrongdoing by reproducing it in your own life.
Jesus didn’t go to the cross so we could become spiritual reflections of the people who hurt us. He went so we could look more like Him.
Forgive. Release. Obey. Not because they deserve it, but because He does.
That’s the freedom holiness gives us—the power to be different, even when it costs us something.
Let the cross be your compass, not your critics. Their sin is not your standard. Christ is.