Sins Of Omission Series

Implicit in James’ words is the fact that we Christians are responsible to know the will of God. We have the Spirit of God living within us. He is the Helper appointed to “teach [us] all things and bring to []our remembrance all that [the Master] has said” [JOHN 14:26]. As we move about in our lives, the Spirit of God is constantly directing us, saying, “This is the way, walk in it” [ISAIAH 30:21]. James has already informed us that “the Spirit God caused to live within us has an envious yearning” for us to do what is pleasing to Him [JAMES 4:5 NET BIBLE].

More than that, according to Peter, “we have something more sure” than even experience, and that is “the prophetic Word” [2 PETER 1:19]. Frankly, there is no excuse for a child of God living in Canada to claim ignorance of the Word. We have multiplied translations of God’s Word in our own language. Radio and television and internet disseminate the Word so that it is almost impossible to believe that someone can exist without hearing the preached Word. If there is a deficit of opportunity to know the will of God, it lies in the failure of us who are preachers to provide sound teaching.

As an aside of considerable importance, preachers bear an awesome responsibility to declare the Word of the Lord faithfully. They are responsible to know the Word and to rightly handle that Word. I fear that many who are looked to as preachers in this day are more like religious cheerleaders than they are expositors of the Word. Listening to much that masquerades as preaching in this day can produce spiritual dyspepsia at best and ensure spiritual malnutrition at worst. Preachers are trained to build self-esteem, to make people feel good about themselves, to avoid confronting sinners in their sin. Thus, contemporary preachers willingly tell a story about a lost dog that generates a few tears, and people feel as though they have worshipped. Or they tell about a book of pop psychology that can remove feelings of guilt, and people are thrilled to imagine that they are pleasing to the Lord. However, the people of God are responsible to know the will of God, and we who are appointed to the sacred desk are responsible to ensure that we faithfully declare the full will of God.

Now, James says that if we know the will of God, we are responsible to do the will of God. According to James’ teaching to this point, (teaching for which we cannot claim ignorance):

• When we refuse to accept testing permitted by God, we sin.

• When we fail to ask for heavenly wisdom, or fail to appropriate that wisdom, we sin.

• When we succumb to temptation, we sin.

• When we fail to hear the Word, we sin.

• When we refuse to bridle our tongue, we sin.

• When we treat fellow Christians as inferior to ourselves, we sin.

• When we reduce the Faith to ritual, we sin.

• When we destroy with our tongue, we sin.

• When we quarrel and fight, we sin.

• When we speak evil of fellow Christians, we sin.

• When we exalt ourselves, we sin.

Though we are prone to treat sin lightly, sin is an offence to Holy God. The redeemed child of God is not lost because he or she sins; however, sin does cause fellowship to be broken. It is not that God ceases to love His child; but our sin comes between us and God. Nevertheless, God offers eternal life, and the child of God, having been saved, cannot suddenly be unsaved. Perhaps the best-known verse in the entire Bible is JOHN 3:16: “God so loved the world, that He gave His Only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”