Willful Sins, Great Transgressions

Recently,* a friend asked a question about Christians of
today, which got a ready answer from me. There is a prayer in Psalm 19 that
does not seem to me to be applied by many of us.

“Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep
your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be
blameless, innocent of great transgression” (Psalm 19:12-13).

We do not confess known sins (1 John 1:7-9) nor request
cleansing from secret sins. We do not request help for obedience in small
things nor for deliverance from addiction to them. If we did, then there would
be no danger of us committing any great sin.

Great sins are caused by a multitude of unconfessed, willful
sins that are now ruling over us. A great transgression is the next event. In
many evangelical churches, there is a great transgression happening somewhere right
now. We do not understand how it could have happened. The answer is easy. The
guilty person did not pray verses 12 and 13 of this Psalm. He may have been surprised
himself by this great sin. While the rest of us are wondering how it happened,
we are busy with our own willful sins, letting them get dominion over
us, setting us up for a great transgression.

There is an additional reason for this great transgression.
We brothers in Christ who saw it coming did not intercept him before the great
transgression happened or confront him after it happened. Here are our “whys.”

1. We do not want to be judged by those who say, “Do not
judge.”

2. We are able, but unwilling to confront him.

3. We are willing, but not spiritually qualified to confront
him. “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual
should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be
tempted” (Galatians 6:1). “How can you say to your brother ‘Let me take the
speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?” (Matthew
7:4).

4. We are not willing to get qualified. “You hypocrite,
first take the plank out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to
remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5).

5. We are not willing to introduce kind, loving biblical
discipline into the church. “If your brother sins against you, go and show him
his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your
brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that
‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’
If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to
listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector” (Matthew
18:15-17). “But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone
who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a
slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What
business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge
those inside?” (1 Corinthians 5:11-12).

6. We do not want the brother to take offense. He may hold
us to be in the wrong for correcting him.

Friends do not allow friends to sin. Friends do not allow
friends to be unrepentant.

Written December 1999.

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