You have probably heard about the “five-second rule,” which basically says that if you pick up food that you dropped on the floor within five seconds of it hitting the floor, it’s fine to eat it. The thinking is that because it was on the floor such a short amount of time, it likely picked up less dirt, bacteria, etc.
I have never liked or followed the five-second rule, no matter how clean my floor (or anyone’s else’s) looks.
Is there a five-second rule around sinning? Does God really hold every sin against us? Maybe some are so inconsequential that He just looks the other way since there’s really no harm done, is there?
There’s good news and bad news here. The bad news is that we are all sinners, and even one sin in our lifetime can separate us from God – even if no other human saw it and we don’t think there was any harm (just like that dropped food we discussed earlier). Someday every sin will be taken into account. Thus, there is no “five-second” rule with sin.
The good news is that, if you are willing to lay your sin at the feet of Christ and seek forgiveness, you are forgiven for every sin, for all of eternity. No more wondering if what you have done may be a problem in the future (kind of like eating that food off the floor, but on a much more serious scale!). You can know that you are completely fine, for all of eternity. The only catch is that you must make a decision to follow Christ before it’s too late… and none of us know how many seconds we still have to do that.
So next time you drop that food and ponder the five-second rule, ponder also the Creator of the Universe and know that even though you can’t be sure about the safety of that food on the floor, you can be forever sure of your salvation, if you have answered God’s call to come to Him. Have you?
