Q65. How will godly acquaintance make my sin greater?

When you sin against the counsel, warnings, and appeals of godly people, and when their very lives serve as a rebuke to you and yet you sin on regardless, your guilt deepens. This is exactly how Ishmael, Esau, Eli's sons, Absalom, and Judas all sinned. Each of them had good company, sound counsel, and a righteous example set before them by those close to them, yet they sinned against all of it, and their judgment was all the heavier for it. Ishmael was cast out1, Esau was hated2, Eli's sons died suddenly3, and both Absalom and Judas came to a strange and terrible end by hanging4.