Omission and commission
In the beginning when God created mankind, He gave two commands: one regarding something they were to do and the other regarding something they were not to do. They were told to be fruitful and multiply, and they were told not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Man did not do what he was told to do. This was a sin of omission. Instead, he focused on trying not to do what he was told not to do. In the end, he wound up doing it anyway, and that was a sin of commission.
The interesting thing is that when he didn’t do what he was commanded to do (a sin of omission) he didn’t consider it sin; but as soon as he did what he was told not to do (a sin of commission) he knew he had sinned, and he ran and hid from God. Unfortunately, I think that is still true of man today.
We often don’t do what God speaks to us about doing in His Word or by His Spirit. And we don’t consider this sin, because we haven’t really “done” anything (which is actually the problem). When the Holy Spirit tries to convict us, we tell Him we will do it someday, we just cannot do it right now. But delayed obedience is disobedience which is sin, for God says in His Word:
James 4:17 “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”
I think the Lord is more concerned about us doing what He is telling us to do than He is about us doing what He tells us not to do. Consider for example the first and second great commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. If we obeyed these two commandments we would not disobey all the “thou shalt nots.”
Galatians 5:14 “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’”
Jesus gave us, the Church, a couple of commands just before He ascended into Heaven: Get baptized with the Holy Spirit, and go into the world and make disciples of all nations. Sadly, many Christians ignore these commands and focus on not sinning. In reality, they are sinning by not doing what they were told to do, and they often end up doing what they are told not to do anyway.
Isn’t this command to go and make disciples similar to the command that God gave to Adam and Eve when He told them to be fruitful and multiply? Do you think that if Eve had obeyed God and had a baby on her side and a toddler at her feet that she would have been hanging around with the serpent at the tree whose fruit brings forth death?
Likewise, if we as Christians would obey Christ, get filled with the Spirit and make some disciples, it would go a long way to keeping us from doing the things we are not supposed to do. For one thing our minds would be focused on our mission and not on the things we are commanded not to do. And, if we have a young disciple following us around, we are more likely to stay far away from sin, for fear of causing them to stumble and fall.
More omission
Sin begins in the mind. What we think about is what we do. The old adage, sow a thought, reap an action, is true, and God, the devil, and advertisers understand this principle very well. That is why God commands us to study His Word. So it gets in our minds. It is why He commands us to preach the Gospel to the world: so He can plant His truth in people’s minds.
And that is why the devil’s greatest strategy and efforts go toward planting thoughts in our minds. It is also why advertisers spend millions of dollars on thirty-second commercials, so they can get you thinking about their products. They know that if you do, you will probably end up buying them.
Let’s look at what the Father says in His Word about this subject of the mind.
Romans 8:6 “To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
Colossians 3:2 “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”
Isaiah 26:3 “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You.”
The value we get from coming before the Father first thing each morning to focus our minds and hearts on Him, His love, and His Word; His goodness, kindness, forgiveness; His concern, will, plan, purpose, and provision – is that we are focusing our minds on what we want to have influencing and controlling our actions throughout that day.
The devil, on the other hand, wants us to focus our minds on the things of the world. That is what he did with Eve: he got her focused on the tree. If he can get us focused on sin – even if it is by him telling us that we cannot do that sin – he has already won. When we focus our thinking on something, even if it is with the intent of not doing it, it is usually only a matter of time before we end up doing it.
If my weakness is alcohol and every morning I wake up thinking that I cannot have a drink today, then the devil has me thinking about having a drink from the time my day begins. I spend my day focused on not having a drink, and while I may not drink that day, week, month or year, I will more than likely drink again at some point because I am thinking about it all the time. Even if I do not drink, the devil has still won because I am focusing on not drinking rather than focusing on God and on His will, plan, and purpose for my life. I will therefore not accomplish anything for Him and His kingdom that day.
Let us focus our hearts and minds on God and on His will; on what He would have us do each day; and as we do we will live a fruitful life of peace, love, and joy for His glory. Let’s not focus our minds on sin, even if it is on not committing that sin. Because if we do, we will end up committing a sin of omission, even if we do not commit the sin we were focused on not doing. We will omit doing God’s will by not doing with our life what God would have had us to do that day.
Even more omission
How concerned is God about us doing His will and how important is it for us to do it? Not doing God’s will is the essence of sin, and not doing God’s will will keep us from entering into Heaven for only those who do the will of the Father will enter into Heaven.
Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven.”
Clearly, Jesus is telling us here that one of the requirements of entering into Heaven is to do the will of the Father. God is not bringing people into Heaven who still live in rebellion against Him. If He did, they would turn Heaven into what they have turned earth into: a place of crime, wars, sickness, death, and perversion.
If we are not living as citizens of His kingdom here on earth, we should not be surprised if we are left out of His kingdom there in Heaven. The flip side of that is what the Lord spoke through John in one of his letters:
1 John 2:17 “But he who does the will of the Father abides forever.”
The kingdom of God is the place where His will is being done. It begins here on earth and then naturally translates into eternity.
Let’s look at an example of two men in the Old Testament who exemplify this truth. One did not do the will of God and the other one did. We will start with King Saul. God spoke by Samuel to Saul, telling him to go down to Gilgal and wait there for seven days until Samuel came to offer the sacrifices. After that, He would come and show Saul what he should do. Saul did not wait, though; he did not do what the Lord commanded him to do. As a result, Saul lost the kingdom.
1 Samuel 13:13-14 “And Samuel said to Saul, ‘You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.’”
It appears that Saul did not love nor fear the Lord, and so he did not obey His commands. David is the man of God’s choosing; the man after God’s own heart. But when we compare David’s sins of adultery and murder with Saul’s sin of not obeying the Lord and waiting for Samuel to get there before offering a sacrifice it seems like David’s sins are much worse than Saul’s sin. Yet David was not removed from being king after his sins.
Acts 13:22: “And when He had removed him [Saul], He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I HAVE FOUND DAVID THE SON OF JESSE, A MAN AFTER MY OWN HEART WHO WILL DO ALL MY WILL.’”
The difference between Saul and David was that David loved and feared the Lord and would do all of His will. He would do whatever God told him to do. Now, was he a perfect man? No. We know that David did things he should not have done – numbering the people and the sins involving Bathsheba and Uriah – and that God brought terrible consequences upon him, his family, and the nation because of those sins. But David repented, and God never took the kingdom away from him for the sins he committed. But He did end Saul’s reign because of his sins of omission, not doing what God commanded him to do.
Maybe the lesson here is, if we do what God tells us to do, He can still use us even though we are not perfect; but if we don’t obey Him, He can no longer use us as He would like. Now, please do not misunderstand what I am saying here. I am not saying that God does not care about sins of commission but only sins of omission. I believe that both if not confessed and repented of will take us to Hell.
The fear then, is that we often focus on our sins of commission and ignore our sins of omission, and I think that makes our sins of omission more dangerous. If for no other reason, because if we do not consider them sin we will not confess them and repent of them!
Seek the Lord
When Paul quotes David and lists the sins of man in Romans 3:10-18, among them is the sin of not seeking God, which is another sin of omission.
Romans 3:10 “As it is written, ‘There is none righteous; no, not one. There is none who understand; there is none who seek after God.”
Most people (including many Christians) are waiting for God to take the lead, speaking to them from a burning bush or something. They take no initiative in seeking Him and seeking His plan, will, purpose, and destiny for their lives. As they are waiting on God, God is waiting on them.
And the ball is on our court, so to speak. It is our move. God has already done all that He needs to do. He has revealed Himself to us through His creation, through the Bible, and through the nation of Israel; through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and through those whom He has saved, transformed, and sent into the world to preach His Gospel.
Romans 1:20 “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.”
We are therefore responsible for seeking Him and His will for us. Jesus commanded us to seek, and guaranteed us that if we do, we will find. In fact the Bible is filled with commands, exhortations, and urgings for us to seek the Lord, and these are not directed to the unsaved only, but God’s people are also urged to seek Him:
Acts 17:27 “So that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.”
Isaiah 55:6 “Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.”
Psalm 27:8 “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ My heart said to You, ‘Your face, Lord, I will seek.’”
Jeremiah 29:13 “You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart.”
These are just a few of the dozens of Scriptures that deal with this topic. The Bible is filled with them because it is such a vital issue to our lives. We may not grasp how critical it is to seek the Lord and His will for us, but the devil does, and he has a grand strategy for keeping us from spending the time and energy that is required to be successful in this endeavor. His favorite strategy is distraction!
He does not care what you give your time, affections, and energies to, as long as they are not used in pursuing God and His will and plan for your life. He does not care how noble, virtuous, or good a pursuit may be, and he does not care how wicked, sinful, or ungodly it may be, as long as it keeps you from God.
Let us not continue to be prey to his strategy any longer. Let’s put off all the worldly distractions and seek the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and He will reward us greatly.
Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” ().
The reward for ceasing the sin of omission in not seeking God as we are are commanded to do is that when we seek Him we will find Him and His will, plan, and purpose for our life. We will begin to enjoy the joy and fulfillment that we experience in knowing the Father and Son and that comes from being and doing what They created and redeemed us to do, starting now and continuing into eternity.
What are you seeking now that compares to that?
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