Everyone “misses the mark.”  Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”

Some people “come short” because of ignorance—they do not know the truth (like they do not know what the Scripture teaches about not eating meat with the blood; such as in Leviticus 17:11-12, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.  Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood.”).

Other people “come short” because of rebellion—they know the truth, and rebel against it, and do the sin anyway.  James 4:17 says, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

Knowing the truth, and not obeying it brings three things into our lives:

#1—It brings self-justification.
When we know that God says not to do something, but we do it anyway, then we “justify” it in our minds.  We “reason” with ourselves why we are “excused” from obeying God in that matter.  Luke 16:15 says, “And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.”   That brings us to the next step:

#2—It brings self-deception.
Self-justification brings us to falsely conclude in our minds that we really are “excused” from obeying God’s commands.  The Bible says that we are then “deceiving ourselves.”  James 1:22 says, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”  Once we take this position, that we can excuse ourselves from obeying the Bible, then it quickly spreads to other commands and other areas of our lives—because we have deceived ourselves.   That brings us to the next step:

#3—It brings God’s judgment or chastening in our lives.
1 Corinthians 11:31-32 says, “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.”  God’s chastisement can come in many ways, including sickness, and even death; like is seen in the Corinthian Church in 1 Corinthians 11:30, “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.”  The “timing” and “type” of chastisement is completely in the Lord’s hands.  One thing is certain, the “pain” of the chastisement is always going to outweigh the “pleasure” of the sin.  Galatians 6:7 says, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”  Hebrews 12:6-8 says, "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?  But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.":