Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of people throwing around a certain acronym (or straight out just using the words it stands for): “FAFO”.  If you don’t already know what the “F” stands for, you can probably figure it out, but the rest is “Around and Find Out”. The idea behind it is this:  If you choose to put yourself in the middle of a bad situation, if you think you can play with fire and not get burned, if you think that somehow you’re immune to the consequences of your actions, then you’re in for an unpleasant awakening. Sooner or later, the consequences will arrive and you will find out that you’re not going to like them.  There is often also a “people get what’s coming to them” kind of satisfaction or even glee (the German word “Schadenfreude”, if you’re familiar with it, also fits) attached to “FAFO”.

I have no interest in using that acronym (or phrase), and I don’t encourage anyone else to use it, but perhaps there’s value in adapting it. We can perhaps redirect its cultural momentum to a spiritual and more important application: SAFO — Sin Around and Find Out.

That’s a message that our culture has largely declared out of bounds — whether because it’s impolite, uncomfortable, politically incorrect, or just too religious doesn’t really matter. But Christians and the church should be ready and willing to say this (though without the satisfaction or Schadenfreude). It’s actually loving your neighbor to say it, because no one’s going to see his or her need for a Savior from sin if they don’t understand that sin is something they need saving from.

The simplest application of SAFO is the eternal one: treat sin as no big deal, defy God’s authority over and in your life, break his rules, and think that none of it will matter at the end (of your life or the world), and you will find out that living that way was not at all a good decision. And since conscience and nature testify to everyone about right and wrong and the One with authority, there is no one who should be surprised, in the end, by the consequences of his or her choices. Anyone who actually has heard the testimony of God’s Word will have even less excuse, because things are laid out there so clearly. And the Bible makes clear that hell is real, and a really bad place to spend eternity.

But the warning of SAFO also applies to life on earth. Because sin also has consequences in and for life on earth — for us and everyone’s lives this side of eternity.

That’s because sin is not just “something that makes God mad”. Nor is it just “God made a rule and we’ll be in trouble if we don’t follow it”.  Those ideas leave open the possibility that there’s something entirely arbitrary about God’s law, or even that we might know better, now, but still have to obey.

But sin is not just disobedience. It’s also the decision to do what is contrary to God’s perfect will and design for us human beings, the crown of his creation. 

If we ignore or throw out the operating instructions for a finely-tuned piece of machinery and just do what we think best with it, we shouldn’t be surprised when it breaks down — at the very least, we won’t get the full and best use out of it. If we presume to know better than our doctors or pharmacists and take the medications we’re given in whatever way we want instead of as prescribed, we shouldn’t expect to have the good results they promised. In the same way, when humans arrogantly live their lives in opposition to God’s will and in defiance of his design, there will be consequences. And they won’t be good.

Sure, the results don’t always show themselves immediately, and sometimes they are masked by other things, but sooner or later the effects are felt and fractures multiply. And while “I’m afraid of the consequences” is never the right reason to obey God’s law, it is also true that not following his will in your life always has consequences. 

This is especially true for those who know, or should know, better: Christians, and those who used to be but have turned their back on Christianity. Because believers have been told and understand that following God’s will is not a burdensome obligation, but a way to please their loving Lord and to live in the way that’s best in every way. Which means that every sinful choice forfeits blessings and peace — SAFO. That’s not what we want.

But it is what we see all around us, when people — even fellow Christians — “sin around” even if they have not yet “found out”.  What have the consequences been — for individuals, for families, for society, for the church, for children — of so many choices to mess with God’s design for sex, marriage, and the family? It’s no surprise: conflict, emptiness, pain, loneliness, abuse, damage, disease, delusion, depression, and more. 

And what has happened as people have ignored God’s will — and then, even basic science and logic — when it comes to the human body or mind? Mutilated bodies, existential confusion, lives disconnected from reality.

“Sinning around” by redefining life and death, or right and wrong in relation to them, has certainly not made society better or happier. The inconvenient are killed, the vulnerable are victimized, and the voiceless are silenced — and every life is devalued, and the world itself is impoverished.

This is what we “find out”: when we mess with the Creator’s design and will, we get less and we get worse. And this is exactly what we should expect from our reading of his Word. No one should be surprised by the unpleasant, destructive, negative, or deadly consequences of sinful choices. SAFO.

Thank the Lord, though, for his grace and mercy in Jesus Christ! Because in love God decided to save sinners. Not by giving them a better way or a second chance or a step up, but by removing their sin and guilt and thereby removing the eternal consequences of their willfulness and rebellion. He sent Jesus Christ, his Son, to be our Substitute — to take all our sin as his own and to suffer everything we deserved in our place, so we wouldn’t have to die or be damned — and that’s what he did. He saved us. He did it for everyone. Trust it, and that salvation — that rescue from the consequences of your sin — is yours forever.

It won’t necessarily fix the problems your sin (or anyone else’s) has caused here in your earthly life, but it will definitely make things better. If nothing else, you will know how and will want to follow God’s will and design for your life, and that will bring blessing and peace.  Follow Christ and find out.