Don’t Cover Sin

The enemy often uses our desires to deceive us into committing a sin. He encourages it and right after we commit the sin, he shames us with it. And then we do everything we can to hide the sin because we don’t want others to know about it. We want to appear PERFECT.

You have probably heard or even said this before, “Perfect is overrated.” Yet we all want to appear like perfect and sinless people. But that is not true.

The Bible does say “be perfect just as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” So we do ought to be perfect and maybe that’s why we aim and try to be perfect so much. But such perfection is by the grace of God and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We are being perfected in Christ each day. 

We are all imperfect and we commit sin. We all know that.

Yet, we hide our sins.

In fact, if we trace it all the way back to the beginning, the first thing Adam and Eve did when they realized they had sinned was to hide away from God. 

The enemy has really deceived us into thinking that if we cover our sins, everybody will think we are sinless.

But no, we all know everyone sins, we might not know the particular sin but it doesn’t matter.

So why are we hiding the sin?

When we continue to hide that sin we are battling with, we provide it with the perfect atmosphere to grow. It is not been confronted, so it keeps growing. We are literally feeding the sin.

This is why accountability is important. Having someone to confide in that can keep you in check, prevents the growth of that besetting sin.

Especially as Christians who have the Holy Spirit in us who has come to convict the world of sin and help us grow. One of his jobs is to help us put on our new self, exchange sin for righteous and godly living. But when we willingly hide sin, we are not working and cooperating with the Holy Spirit. Rather we are working against him.

Many times like the Apostle Paul said we do things we don’t want to do because the flesh and spirit are against each other. Because at salvation, our flesh isn’t saved only the spirit is saved. So, the flesh wants us to continue in sin but the spirit doesn’t.

And when we hide sin rather than uncover and shame it, we are unknowingly cooperating with the flesh instead of the Spirit.

Sin must be uncovered.

Sin must be shamed

Sin must be confronted

Notice I didn’t say the “sinner” but the “sin”.

For there is no more condemnation or shame for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).

But the more we hide and cover sin, the more we dwell and encourage it.

The Bible says we are under no obligation to obey our flesh.

Romans 8: 12-13 (NIV)

Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

So why are we hiding the sin?

The Bible also says, sin has no power over us and it is not our master. But when we continue to hide it and indulge it in thereby obeying it, it becomes our master.

Romans 6:14-17 (NIV)

14 For sin shall no longer be your master because you are not under the law, but under grace. 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

So we must not allow ourselves to become willing slaves of sin again. We might fall once in a while. We must not cover it, allow it to grow and master over us because we want to appear perfect. We are all still a work in progress as long as we are in these earthly bodies.

ACKNOWLEDGE IT

To uncover sin, we must first acknowledge the presence of any sin in our lives.

Acknowledging is a big step.

Last year, I became very conscious of the sin of pride in me. The Holy Spirit really showed this to my face.

So I had to acknowledge it rather than denying and covering it.

Acknowledgment is hard, especially for Christians. When someone points out a sin we commit, we get a defensive. We begin to quote scriptures about how free we are and how we are under grace. We use our freedom in Christ as a cover-up for sin. We use grace as a hiding place. 

1 Peter 2:16 says:

^“Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.”

But the thing is Grace itself is against sin and teaches us to turn from it. 

Titus 2:11-12 says:

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.

DO NOT IDENTIFY WITH SIN.

I also get a lot of comments like, “Esther you are rude” and I get defensive.

And I say something like, “I am not rude. You are the one who is being disrespectful. I would not respond to you rudely if you didn’t disrespect me.”

You see what I was doing there.

I was trying to protect and cover sin. In fact, I was trying to hide “my” sin of rudeness with someone else’s sin of disrespect.

I was basically saying, “Don’t talk to my rudeness that way. Why are you calling out my rudeness? My rudeness was perfectly hiding before your disrespectfulness drew it out.”

I was making the sin personal. “My, my, my”

I was identifying with the sin and defending the sin.

DETACH AND UNCOVER IT

We subconsciously make the sin a part of us. We claim it and we feel like we have to protect and cover it.

But sin must be uncovered and shamed and it is not a part of you. We must learn to detach ourselves from sin.

Because we take the sin so personal like it’s a part of us, we feel like people are pointing at us rather than the sin we are committing.

The sin is not you.

You are not the sin.

You are a person who happens to commits a particular sin.

You are a sinner NOT a sin.

For example, I am Esther who happens to commit a sin called rudeness.

I am not rudeness.

Rudeness has its own identity. A sin.

And I have mine. An imperfect, redeemed, forgiven, unashamed Child of God.

Don’t take sin personally and try to hide it.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not happy that I am dealing with a sin called rudeness neither am I going to continue to defend it and happily cover it because I am not ready to acknowledge it and do something about it. 

I am imperfect and I have awesome spiritually mature friends that I intentional uncovering my sins to,  that way I can be kept accountable, ask for prayers, cooperate with the Holy Spirit and be healed.

The only one who is allowed, capable and has already covered, forgiven, and forgotten  our sins forever is God through the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Romans 4:7  

“Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

Hebrews 8:12 

^“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

When we try to play God and cover our sins, we only just make it grow and it finally consumes and Lord over us.

Don’t cover sin. Don’t protect it. Don’t let it grow. 

It’s not who you are.

God bless.

 

You are Eternally Loved