Secret Sins

It has been said many times before, but the cliche is worth repeating. No one wakes up in the morning and decides to ruin theirs or anyone else’s life. No husband or wife wakes up in the morning deciding they’re going to wreck their marriage, family, and reputation. And yet, adultery happens. No employee decides to perform poorly and get fired. And yet, laziness and unethical work practices happen everyday. No one decides one morning that they’re going to let alcohol or drugs ruin their life. And yet these harmful addictions are becoming so common in our world. No elder decides one day he’s going to disqualify himself and discredit his church’s ministry. And yet, headlines of pastoral moral failure have become almost routine, haven’t they? No parent wakes up one day and decides to make sure their kids become unbearable little fools. And yet parents fail to instruct and discipline their kids all the time.

Secret sins. This is the root cause of all of these major moral catastrophes. When we nurse and coddle and protect any number of small, seemingly insignificant, out-of-sight-out-of-mind sins and habits that eat away at our moral compass, our consciences, and our spiritual vitality. It is of course basic Christian teaching that all of us as sinners have sin in our life—none of us is perfect. And yet, the Bible and our experience show us a category for sin that may be present in our life that can take on a disproportionately destructive course.

These little secret sins that we hide from others—that we continue to downplay, that we think are under control or kept in check—eventually can and do grow into a bigger beast than we can tame. “It’s just a few drinks every evening to calm me down. It’s just some harmless text messages with an old friend. My boss doesn’t know about this so what’s the harm. Oh well, kids are kids after all, they’ll be fine. No one sees the websites I go to, so it’s not a big deal.

The Psalms offer us many prayers that should lead us to reflect on these little secret sins that we may harbor in our lives. They give us a script for us to follow to examine our hearts and remember God’s holiness. They teach us that secret sins first and foremost display our own self-deception and foolish disregard for God’s Omniscience and omnipresence. God knows all things. And God sees and is present in all places and times.

Psalm 69:5 - O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.

Psalm 90:8 - You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.

This is why the Psalms teach us to pray to God in Psalm 19, “Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.” (Psalm 19:12–13)

And so, church, as we go to God now in confession of our sin, I want you to especially consider not only your sin generally—as we know all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God—but those secret sins. The little ones that maybe no one here knows about. Lay those sins before the Lord, do not run or hide away in shame foolishly thinking he doesn’t see or know.

And then, as we go to him now silently, I also want you to consider finding a trusted friend or one of the pastors here or a fellow church member and confessing to them. This, the Bible teaches us, is what true repentance from sin looks like when it reaches full maturity. Walking in the light and in open fellowship with one another. And through this the Lord offers you freedom and healing from your sin.

1 John 1:6–10 [6] If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. [7] But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. [8] If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. [9] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. [10] If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.