“But a man who commits adultery lacks judgment, whoever does so destroys himself.” Proverbs 6:32
“So far, so good.” That was heard coming from a man passing by the third story of a skyscraper after falling out of a window on the fiftieth floor. He was, in essence, correct, but only for a few more feet. That is also the common belief of those who find themselves caught up in sinful acts. After falling from the window of faith, things might seem pretty good for awhile on the way down and that will lead to a false sense of security. The proverbs verse above isolates the sin of adultery, but there are many sinful behaviors that can be penciled into the verse. The point is that every fall has its terrible conclusion and denying it on the way down does not change God’s law anymore than the denial of gravity can change a rapid descent.
Lack of judgment leads to self-destruction. Once one decides 
to take the path of poor judgement, there are fewer and fewer routes back to righteousness. The root cause of poor judgment is self-deception. Once we entertain first steps of sin, each step gets easier. The first step is always the hardest, but the easiest to return from. Every step taken after that is harder to return from, and soon, return seems out of the question. At some point pride will take hold of us and return to the right path becomes admission of wrongdoing, and that is sometimes too hard to face. We might say we would rather be in misery than admit that we caused the misery. Self-destruction is accompanied by some very typical behaviors. If we understand those, maybe we can help others who are going down the wrong path or at the least will avoid our own trips off the straight and narrow.
It is important to know that the domino of bad choices never starts in isolation. It normally entails a sequence of unwise decisions, each one escalating in severity. The steps of sin are slow and short at first and then pick up in speed and stride until they may even reach a sprint. I ‘ve watched many a marathon and I notice that there are check points along the way where coaches will shout out instructions and the runners will often change their tactics to keep going strong. When someone is in a sin marathon, there are tactics, outlined by Coach Satan for every step of the way. Dutifully, it seems, everyone on his team follows his instructions to the tee.
First of all, those in sin must separate themselves from spiritual truth-tellers. 
They must avoid places where these people hang out. Church, Bible studies, and other Christian haunts are off limits. They must avoid being alone with anyone who might try to bring the Bible into the conversation. Of course, those people must be replaced with others. Non-Christians are fine, but the best people to hang with are wishy-washy Christians with milquetoast spirituality who emphasize passive tolerance for all behavior. These kinds of Christians are great because they give the illusion that the backslider has not totally left the faith, and lends some credence of credibility to his actions. Eventually, in the later stages, even these pseudo-Christians will be left behind because even their wimpy Christianity is too much 
for completely backslidden turncoats. Those falling away must put themselves in the position to avoid the truth from Ecclesiastes: “It is better to heed the rebuke of a wise person than to listen to the song of fools.” (Ecclesiastes 7:5) Instead, they listen to the songs of fools and eventually join the choir themselves.
Secondly, after people and places begin to be left behind, new habits will replace the old ones. Habits that were rejected for years suddenly become palpable and eventually habitual. Hobbies and interests will change and such things like music and movies degrade to an explicable low level. We are warned about this behavior in Romans: “And let not your behavior be like that of this world, but be changed and made new in mind, so that by experience you may have knowledge of the good and pleasing and complete purpose of God.” (Romans 12:2) At first the wanderers begin to play at their worship and worship their play, but 
eventually they abandon their worship and live for their play. There may be sporadic returns to the people and places of their life in the spirit, but it will be short-lived because there are too many references to “do the right thing” and “obey God’s Word” and “avoid sin” and all kinds of intolerant and discriminatory verbiage. But those brief returns are just enough for the wanderer to blame future absences on the prejudice of obviously hypocritical Christians.
Lastly, but really all along the way, the self-destructive backslider must put the blame 
on everyone else. He cannot be to blame. After all, he did his best and everyone else let him down. He gave God a try, but God was found wanting. They deceive themselves into thinking they have it all figured out and everyone else is clueless. There is no one who is exempt from the attacks. Anyone who might question the backslider, correct the backslider, convict the backslider, rebuke the backslider, or confront the backslider is the enemy. Backsliders are self-sufficient and dependent on no one. Anyone in their way who disagrees with their direction will be run over. The brave who stand up to them will receive their ire and probably their wrath.
Unfortunately, self-destruction is really a misnomer. There is really no such thing as self destruction that stands alone. When one self-destructs, he takes others with him. If he were the only one affected, maybe his behavior could be overlooked. After all his bad choices would only be affecting his own life. Sadly, that is not life. He does the opposite of throwing himself on the hand grenade for others. 
He throws others on the hand grenade for him. That is what the self-lover (which is what a self-destructor is) does not realize. He hurts those around him, as much or more as he hurts himself. Sometimes even more because he has to drain feelings from himself to carry on this self-destruction, but those around him retain their feelings and those feelings feel pain.
When someone puts his own desires first, none will thrive. Not him, not those around him. The Lord of the Rings tells the story of two hobbit-like people named Sméagol and Déagol who decided one day to go fishing. Ordinarily they were simple folk who could find delight in the smallest things, 
but everything changed for these two when, in the course of their fishing expedition, Déagol finds a ring on the bottom of the river. This ring, however, was no ordinary ring, for it had been designed by the evil warlord Sauron and promised to grant great powers to its wearer. Seeing the ring, Sméagol instantly wanted to have it, and upon Déagol’s refusal to hand it over, “he caught Déagol by the throat and strangled him, because the gold looked so bright and beautiful.”
This story shows what happens when we covet something or someone else. Our desire to have what belongs to another can twist us into to people we can hardly recognize. If our sinful desires cannot be resisted, reputation, families, careers, and lives can be ruined. If we find ourselves going off the path of 
righteousness, even slightly, we must right our course. Proverbs 12:12 says, “Whoever is wicked covets the spoil of evildoers, but the root of the righteous bears fruit.” We cannot sow wickedness and expect to reap righteousness. The saying “so far so good” can be trumped by another saying, “All’s well that ends well.” Sinful self-destruction does not end well. It will never end well. Not for the sinner and not for the innocent. Those who backslide plunge into a pool whose ripples will go out to distances and places not imagined.
We need to keep ourselves on the right paths, so that others know where they, too, can travel. We must speak up when we see a wanderer even if we will face derision. We need to remember the truth revealed in Psalm 119:1, “How happy are those whose way is blameless, who live according to the LORD’s instruction!” We need to spread that truth. God has promised us that “(He) will make known to (us) the path of life; and in (His) presence there is fullness of joy; and at (His) right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11) Why would we walk any other path? Why would anyone?