Proverbs 14:9 (ESV)
⁹  Fools mock at the guilt offering, but the upright enjoy acceptance.

The guilt-offering, sometimes referred to as a sin-offering, was offered for both intentional and unintentional sins (Leviticus 4:5-13; 6:24-30).  To mock the guilt-offering was to scoff at the significance of sin and the penalty for it.  Only the fool dares to do that.

To understand the seriousness of sin, one only needs to keep in mind what it does and the price it costs to eradicate it.  What does sin do?  It separates the soul from God.

Isaiah 59:1-2 (ESV)
¹  Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; ²  but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

What else can separate a person from God other than sin?  The answer is nothing.  Sin is the only thing that stops people from enjoying acceptance with God.  That makes sin the most dangerous and destructive thing in the world.  To take it lightly, and even worse, to mock it, is foolish indeed.

Paul tells us that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), but the consequences of sin is even worse than the wages.  The death Paul speaks of here is physical.  I know this because Jesus paid the price for us, and the only death He ever died was physical.  For our sins to be forgiven, blood had to be shed (Hebrews 9:22).  Now, while physical death was the wage that had to be paid for redemption, the consequence of sin, as I noted above, is spiritual death or separation from God.  But, it gets worse.  If we die physically, or if Jesus comes back while we are spiritually dead, the death becomes eternal.  The Bible calls this the second death, and it involves an eternity of suffering.

Revelation 20:14-15 (ESV)
¹⁴  Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. ¹⁵  And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

If you do not take sin seriously, there is something else that should persuade you to do so.  As I indicated above, the price that had to be paid for us to escape the wrath of God and have the hope of heaven, was the death of Jesus.  It is a blessing beyond measure that He was willing to pay the price of sin for us(1 Corinthians 6:20; Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 1:18-19).  If you want to know how terrible sin is, just think about what Jesus gave up and endured to conquer it.  Jesus gave up His glorious state in heaven and took on the form of a human servant (Philippians 2:6-9), only to give His life for us on the cross, a torturous way to die, because it was the only way for us to be saved.  The Father had to watch His Son suffer and die so that He could be just and the justifier (Romans 3:25-26; 5:8).

Given this, could you ever imagine yourselves mocking sin or the method to overcome it?  Whoever does so is a fool and will, apart from repentance, have great regret in the end.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.