REVEALING RESPECTABLE SINS

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

I love to read and one book that stands out in my past is called; “Respectable Sins, Confronting the Sins We Tolerate” by Jerry Bridges. It’s a great book, but very convicting; for its purpose is to challenge Christians to evaluate their lives for the sins that they tolerate as acceptable. Jerry Bridges calls these sins “respectable” because many Christians have accepted them as condonable and allowable sins. Of course there is no such category of sin by God’s standards. It’s amazing that Christians would categorize any sin as okay, but we all do it. We tend to build our spiritual egos by ignoring certain sins we deem as inconsequential to our faith. The problem with accepting some sins as minor is that our Heavenly Father views any sin as unacceptable. I could quote several verses to substantiate this but I’ll just give you James 2:10,

 

“For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.”

 

Mr. Bridges’ point is that Christians have begun to compare themselves with the world and feel that if they aren’t murdering people, committing adultery or stealing from their boss then the “smaller” sins they may commit are “acceptable.” Mr. Bridges challenges all Christians that such thoughts are not appropriate and proper.

 

As I read the book I was convicted by the “respectable” sins that are in my own life. Some are sins that I was aware of and just hadn’t given much notice to. Other sins were ones that I had never even considered as a major problem in my life. That’s why the book was somewhat difficult to read, because it used scripture and the spiritual discernment of Jerry Bridges to convict me of unnoticed sins that were in my own life or ones that I had failed to address.

 

Jerry Bridges covers such respectable sins as Ungodliness, Anxiety, Frustration, Discontentment, Unthankfulness, Pride, Selfishness, Lack of Self-Control, Impatience, Irritability, Anger, Judgmentalism, Envy, Jealousy, Worldliness and Sins of the Tongue. He mentions that he had many more “respectable” sins he could have covered but had to reduce the number to keep the book manageable. Quite a comment if you ask me. The fact that there are too many “respectable” sins to cover in a book should concern us as servants of the God Most High.

 

One point that is covered in the book is how the Word of God plays a significant role in revealing sin in our lives, even the small “respectable” sins we have accepted into our lives dishonor God. He states, “So the first use of the gospel, as a remedy for our sins, is to plow the ground of our hearts so that we can see our sin.”

 

As I thought about this statement my thoughts went back to my days growing up in Oklahoma. My Uncle had some property that was the location of an ancient Indian campsite. I used to have fun hunting for arrowheads on this property. I would walk for hours on end canvassing the ground looking for small pieces of flint in the shape of an arrowhead. The best time to hunt for such arrowheads was right after a hard Oklahoma rainstorm. Such horrific electrical storms brought not just huge claps of thunder and long crooked streaks of white lightning but also a downpour of rain. The deluge of water as it rained would erode away the surface dirt and expose the arrowheads that were buried near the surface.

 

Just like these rainstorms in Oklahoma exposed the arrowhead treasures, as the Living Word of God is poured over our lives it will expose the hidden “respectable” sins that we have come to accept. We often identify the “big” sins in our lives and battle them, but how many of us are willing to consistently and methodically let God’s Word pour over our spirits and souls to reveal those “smaller” sins that we have allowed to take up residence in our lives? How many of us tolerate the “little” sins because we think God is more interested in the “bigger” sins that plague us?

 

To God, sin is sin. He wants all such sins revealed and confessed so that He can forgive them. If they raise their evil head again we are to battle them with as much tenacity as we battle what we feel are “huge” sins. No stone should go unturned in our spiritual lives to identify and eradicate the sins that can grow like malignant cancer throughout our relationship with Christ and our witness before others.

 

In cancer, all it takes is one rogue cancer cell to begin the process of death. If left unchecked one cancer cell can potentially mutate into a large tumor that can take a human life. One “small” “respectable” sin left unchecked in our lives can grow and multiply to become a major spiritual issue. Sin begets sin. No sin, no matter how “small” we may think it is, is acceptable to our perfect and holy Heavenly Father.

 

I don’t believe God wants us overwhelmed and obsessed with constantly evaluating our lives for sin so that we are paralyzed to serve Him. Satan would love us to be so preoccupied with self-examination for sin that we become useless for serving our Lord and King. But I do believe God wants us to study God’s Word, meditate on it, live by it, listen to the Holy Spirit for guidance and make efforts to live a holy and pure life in all areas of our lives. God wants us to grow in a healthy consistent manner and this includes seeking to reveal all sin in our lives so that we can repent of it, receive cleansing from it and move on in obedience to serve Him better.

 

This is basically what is called the sanctification process in the life of the believer; God working in us as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Bishop J.C. Ryle in the book “Faithfulness and Holiness” states, “Sanctification does not consist in the occasional performance of right actions. It is the habitual working of a new heavenly principle within, which runs through all a man’s daily conduct, both in the great things and in small.”

 

There is a balance we need to have in our Christian life regarding sin and assurance of forgiveness. We need to seek to purge our lives of any sin that hinders our relationship with our Heavenly Father, but we also need to accept the fact that God forgives us of such sins and our salvation is assured. Hebrews 10:19-24 is a good verse that speaks of this.

 

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”

 

What an amazing verse of assurance. We can have confidence that we are able to come into the presence of God because of the blood of Jesus and because Jesus is the High Priest who died to pay the penalty of our sins. We can have assurance that we can draw near to God because our sinful hearts have been sprinkled with the living water supplied by Jesus Christ.

 

While the Oklahoma rainstorms reveal the hidden arrowheads and God’s Living Word reveal the sins hidden to our perception in our lives; the Living Water supplied by Christ washes us of the penalties for the sins we have committed, are committing and will commit in our lives. As we seek to live for Christ, we examine carefully our thoughts, actions and behaviors for those things that bring God displeasure. These sins may be to us either huge ugly sins or tiny “respectable” sins, but they all must be slain and purged from our lives to bring honor and glory to our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. We are to seek to become more holy each and every day because we are compelled by the love Christ demonstrated for us in His sacrifice on the Cross. Because He first loved us; we seek to love Him and pursue a holy life which is pleasing to our Master and Lord.

 

The end of the passage in Hebrews encourages us to hold one another accountable for how we live our lives. It says, “let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” We must help one another as we live as Disciples of Christ by holding each other accountable for how we live our lives for Christ. We do this out of love for one another and for our Savior. We do this not from an arrogant perspective or holier than thou attitude, but from a humble, mutually submissive mind-set that is based in love. Often the “respectable” sins in our lives go unnoticed by us and we need a loving brother or sister in Christ to identify them sometimes. Such supportive love does not exist in the world around us. Of course we must first examine our own lives for sin and pray how, when and if we are to approach a brother or sister in Christ about such sin. We must approach others in the same manner in which we would want them to approach us in such circumstances, with love, kindness and tenderness.

 

Romans 12:10

“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.”

 

Do you have any “respectable” sins in your life?