Turn Aside From Evil: The Little Sins We Stop Noticing
"The highway of the upright turns aside from evil." — Proverbs 16:17 (ESV)
Since 1998, I've begun my quiet time by reading a Proverb. After all these years, you'd think I'd read and experienced it all. But that's never the case — each day the Lord reveals something new. It happened again recently when I read verse 17 of chapter 16: "The highway of the upright turns aside from evil" (Proverbs 16:17, ESV).
When I read it, my first thought was, "Duh — been there, done that." In other words, I'm good at turning away from evil. But a little whisper in my spirit asked, "Are you sure about that?" Maybe I'm good at avoiding the "big" sins — but what about all the little, pesky ones? When I hold a grudge, that's a sin. When I envy what someone else has, that's a sin. When I use a word I shouldn't, that's a sin. When I'm ungrateful, that's a sin. The list goes on and on.
Here's what struck me: I can never afford to lose sight of my sinful nature. Not so I'll obsess over it, but so I'll stay watchful — and the way I stay watchful isn't by gritting my teeth; it's by staying close enough to the Lord to let His Spirit keep showing me what I've stopped seeing.
And notice what comes in the very next verse: "Pride goes before destruction" (Proverbs 16:18, ESV). That's the trap. Pride whispers, "I'm good" — because I can avoid the big sins — while the little ones slip in and quietly do their damage, callousing my heart and driving a growing wedge between me and the Lord. And if I'm not careful, that wedge grows wide enough to open the door to even greater sins.
Scripture offers us an excellent example of this. Consider Saul, Israel's first king. He never set out to lose his throne; he lost it one small compromise at a time. While waiting for the prophet Samuel to arrive and offer a sacrifice, Saul grew impatient and offered the sacrifice himself, a role God had never given him (1 Samuel 13:8-14). Later, God gave him a clear command: completely destroy the Amalekites and all they had. Saul won the battle but kept the best of the livestock and spared their king — then dressed up his disobedience as devotion, insisting he'd saved the animals to sacrifice to the Lord (1 Samuel 15:9, 15). Here's the chilling part: when confronted by Samuel, Saul doubled down on his denial, insisting, "I have obeyed the voice of the LORD" (1 Samuel 15:20, ESV). He genuinely believed he was good. But the compromises had piled up, and God tore the kingdom from him. Pride's whisper — "I'm good" — is loudest when we've stopped paying attention.
So where does that leave us — anxiously scanning our hearts, panicked over the next blind spot? No. The answer isn't tighter self-policing or working hard to manage our sin — it's nearness to the Lord. It's allowing His light to shine on the small things so they never grow into Saul-sized wrecks. He surfaces them not to condemn us but to keep us close to Him and our hearts alert to our sinful tendencies. That's the grace hidden in the warning: the same God who says "turn aside from evil" walks the road with us, and He is far more committed to our turning than we are.
Big Idea
The danger isn't only the "big" sins, but the little ones pride waves through: the grudge, the flash of envy, the sharp word. Turning aside from evil means staying humble enough to let God expose the small sins and leaning on His Spirit to turn from them in real time.
Questions to Ponder
When you read a verse like Proverbs 16:17 — "turn aside from evil" — does a quiet part of you nod and think, "I'm good; I've got this one"? Sit with that reflex for a moment. Where might that confidence be creating a blind spot? What "smaller" sins are you not seeing — the ones that have quietly become normal for you? Can you trace a struggle in your life where a series of smaller sins led to a catastrophic larger one? Are you on that course now?
Application
With your journal in hand, begin where it's quiet: ask the Lord to reveal the small sins you've stopped noticing, and write down whatever He brings to mind — the grudge you've been nursing, the words you've let fly, the ingratitude you've excused. Don't rush through them, don't dismiss or justify them, and don't go to self-contempt or shame — just name them honestly and sit with them for a moment. Then carry that awareness into your day, stay alert, and when the Spirit surfaces one of those "smaller" sins in the moment, simply turn from it. Confess it, ask Him for the grace to keep from circling back. It's never about willpower or scrubbing yourself clean. It's about staying close enough to hear His whisper and humble enough to heed it.
Before the Lord — a daily devotional by Blake S. Crawford. Read more and subscribe free at blakescrawford.com/before-the-lord.