There is a billboard off to the side of the freeway, which I pass every day on my way home from work, and this billboard says, "The wages of sin is death." I question, on a fundamental level, this statement.
For one thing, the word "wages" is plural, which means, for this statement to be grammatically accurate, it would require the plural form of the verb "to be," not the singular form, "is." I believe, "The wages of sin ARE death" is a more grammatically accurate claim, but the sign that I am forced to look at as I drive home every day is flawed---so what are the wages of publishing grammatically inaccurate signs? For one thing, the perpetrator runs the risk of being accused of ignorance.
A second issue, less pressing than the grammar, is with the concept of "death" as a "wage." As all humans must die, then death is not ONLY the wage for committing sin, but also the wage for living a saintly life, so we might as well have a good time, right?
I understand, however, that there exists a corollary supposition to this argument, which suggests that those who die blameless, perhaps having been forgiven for their naughtiness (although once forgiven, and thus no longer carrying "sin," they are still allowed to collect the "wage" for their non sin-stained life), the blameless individuals are then transported, either bodily or as a non-corporeal essence, to a fancy and pleasant location for an extended stay---whereas those who collect their wages after having legitimately earned them are lead, cast, forced, or otherwise transported to less hospitable climates.
In the latter case, I have come to understand, there is some disagreement in the description of the final destination: a lake of fire, house of horrors, lake of ice, large mouth, or, as was suggested by George Bernard Shaw, perhaps a rather interesting place where one can take a break from the contemplation of perfection in Heaven and have a chat with some of the rather clever individuals who were extremely adept at earning their pay.
If we all die, and there is some evidence to suggest that this is the case, then we are all earning our sin-wages regardless of our behavior, which suggests that we are all still sinful, despite the theoretical hypothesis that a major sacrificial gesture was made a few thousand years ago which, supposedly, cleared the slates of all individuals who were born indebted for the "wages" of their naked, hungry ancestors who happened to take some bad dining advice from a reptile.
Following the example of world leaders, politicians, and business magnates who have made "sin" an extremely profitable enterprise, it would seem that, IN THIS WORLD at the very least, the wages of sin are cash, big houses, medical treatments that work, power, respect, fancy clothes, swimming pools, and frequent flier miles. Therefore, if you are uncertain about the prospects of a secondary "destination" for your consciousness upon the exhaustion of your corpus, most likely having worked yourself to death to increase someone's profits other than your own, then take a moment to reflect on whether or not you might as well indulge in that good, old-fashioned sin. It might be the only enjoyment you get before you fade away, and (who knows?) you might just be able to parlay that sin into some cash with which you might actually be able to have a little bit of fun before you collect your inevitable, although possibly unearned, wages.
---O. Mobile
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