I met a man in Northshore Louisiana who told me he knew God, he feared God, and he loved God. He told me how he gets on his knees every day and confesses his sins to Jesus, and that he knows he can’t live a life of peace without daily receiving the LORD’s forgiveness. But he kept telling me that he goes about and commits these same sins every day. He commits these same sins every day and then afterward he runs to the LORD so he can feel peace again. In my mind, I’m quick to think “Wow, you’re just abusing the grace of God. Isn’t His kindness supposed to lead us to repentance, not just the confession of our sins?” And that hit me hard. I’m taken to Romans 2,
“Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”
What a conviction. I was trying to use the Word of God as an excuse to judge my brother-in-Christ, yet I was condemning myself by judging him because I am the exact same way. YES, God’s kindness is meant to lead us into repentance, Praise God! But I should never isolate one part of the whole passage to try to get it to say what I want it to say. I must first read where it says, “For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things” and then realize that instead of judging him, I should humble myself in confessing that I’m the same way. If I approach this with the pride of pretending I’m any better (hard and impenitent heart), then I’m, “storing up wrath for myself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”
What I’m learning is that we must obey God when He says, “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5) I realize I’m so quick to recognize and judge other believer’s sins, and that sometimes I am so focussed on how other people are not living righteously, that I oftentimes don’t realize I have a whole log in my eye that needs taken care of. This produces so much pride and arrogance. It puts this idea in my head that I am better than those around me. It’s this nearsightedness that is talked about in 2 Peter 1:9 that makes me blind to my own problems. And this nearsightedness causes us to lack the qualities that God calls us to walk in.
“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.” (2 Peter 1:5-9
There’s also the other side where we give ourselves the excuse to be complacent. It doesn’t mean when you see your brother or sister sinning you just ignore it and say “eh, that’s not my problem” or “I struggle with the same thing/a similar thing so I have no right to speak into this”. I’m learning that we must approach this in humility, truth, and most of all love.
“And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” (James 5:15-16) We get to confess our sins to one another! We get to throw away our fear of being looked at as a bad christian, as disgusting, as unforgivable, unredeemable, unlovable, too far gone, and untransformable. SHAME MUST GO! Our minds are SO powerful, and if we’re telling ourselves that we can’t be redeemed or grow, then we’re going to isolate ourselves from one another and from GOD. And this will only result in further depression, anxiety, isolation, and catapult us into deeper cycles of sin.
Instead of hiding our sins and the things we’ve done or the things we’re doing that we’re ashamed of, we must, and I mean we MUST go to God and go to one another and bring our sins and shortcomings to the light. 1 John 1:5 says, “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” And a couple of verses later it says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the Truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.” And at the beginning of the next chapter it says, “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” WHAT!!!! THIS IS SO IMPORTANT!!! THIS IS SO GOOD!!! We must stop isolating and victimizing ourselves from one another and from God. Run to your advocate! Run to the one who freed you from sin and death!! RUN TO JESUS!!! And in Him, you’ll receive forgiveness and freedom!
Christ died so that you can live! So are you really living? Are you walking in abundance? Do you actually have joy? Do you actually have peace? Are you filled with love? Are you patient? Holy Spirit is living in you! Abide in Him! Abide and exude His goodness! Abide and stir those around you to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24)! Christ paid for your life not so that you can start living in the abundance of His goodness just when you get to heaven. His prayer is, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN! Please don’t just wait to get to heaven to live! Devote your whole life to Him now! Confess your sins, yes, but don’t just confess them to get them off your chest. Confess them and do a 180°, sprinting in the completely opposite direction of the darkness that you once were or that you are living in! There is no life except for life in Him!
So the question I want us to ask ourselves is this, are you willing to get uncomfortable and bring your secret sins into the light? Are you willing to feel the weight of your sin, to bring it to God, and to trade this sin for life in Christ? Don’t let pride convince you that you’re all good. Live in daily repentance, and seek the Father who breaks these rhythms of sin.
“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”
