The law of unintended consequences: the unexpected dark side of good intentions

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“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry –Robert Burns

There are always unintended consequences to our plans. The best intentions can have unexpected side affects. Sometimes the side affects are better than we expected. But, sometimes, the side affects aren’t anything like we expected. It is these bad side-affects that I want to consider.

In the social sciences, unintended consequences (sometimes unanticipated consequences or unforeseen consequences) are outcomes that are not the ones foreseen and intended by a purposeful action. The term was popularised in the twentieth century by American sociologist Robert K. Merton.[1]

Unintended consequences can be grouped into three types:

    • Unexpected benefit: A positive, unexpected benefit (also referred to as luck, serendipity or a windfall).
    • Unexpected drawback: A negative, unexpected detriment occurring in addition to the desired effect of the policy (e.g., while irrigation schemes provide people with water for agriculture, they can increase waterborne diseases that have devastating health effects, such as schistosomiasis).
    • Perverse result: A perverse effect contrary to what was originally intended (when an intended solution makes a problem worse). This is sometimes referred to as ‘backfire’.

–Unintended consequences

Consider these examples:

This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry. So he complained to the LORD about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, LORD? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. Just kill me now, LORD! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.” (Jonah)

Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead. As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things.
Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” (Mark 8:31-33)

But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception. (1 John 4:4-6)

I have seen some unintended consequences in churches that should cause us to be careful:

  • Churches that try to help people be “real” with each other — can tend to push so hard for people to make public confession that they speak beyond their heart and become proud of their confessions trying to outdo each other with wilder and wilder tales of sin and debauchery — a good intention with unintended consequences.
  • Churches that try to reach the lost — can tend to push so hard for people to travel to the mission field that they act beyond their heart and sacrifice their lives, their family’s lives, and their children’s lives on the altar of tying to save souls — a good intention with unintended consequences.
  • Churches that preach Bible truths to build mature Chrisitians — can tend to promote “godliness” so hard that people conform beyond their heart and become more proud of their good works than what Jesus Christ has done for them — a good intention with unintended consequences.
  • Churches that preach Bible study to “know the truth” — can tend to promote an elitist Pharisaical attitude of “we are right and everybody else is wrong” which plays into the enemies hand by causing division between brethren.
  • Churches that preach perseverance of the saints (the “P” in the TULIP of Calvanism) — can require Christians to prove they have been saved by never losing faith or backsliding in any way, which can force Christians to put on an hypocritical act of godliness — a good intention with unintended consequences.

The only cure from this is to recognize that we are sinners and need God’s help every day.

I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for many other believers who have never met me personally. I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself. In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
I am telling you this so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments. For though I am far away from you, my heart is with you. And I rejoice that you are living as you should and that your faith in Christ is strong.
And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.
Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. (Colossians 2:1-10)

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