For the Feast of Unleavened Bread

From "Thy Kingdom Come" - a publication of The Association of the
Covenant People, Burnaby, B.C. Canada.


NO MAN IS AN ISLAND
THE EFFECTS OF PRIVATE, "UNSEEN" SIN

by Lew Chuba


Many believe that because their sin does not involve someone else
it is not "hurting" anyone. First and foremost it is hurting the
individual themselves. As Joseph knew, all sin is against God.
"how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"
(Gen.39:9). To sin we must turn our backs on God. Inversely, to
have fellowship with God we must turn our backs on sin. We cannot
face, or serve both sin and God at the same time. "Know ye not,
that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants
ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obe-
dience unto righteousness?" (Rom.6:16). "No man can serve two
masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or
else he will hold to the one, and despise the other" (Mt.6.24).
Secondly, our personal sin affects those around us as well as our
nation "for Achan... took of the accursed thing, and the anger of
the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel." (Josh.
7.1).

The very fact that sin separates us from God makes us deficient
in our entire being, "your iniquities have separated between you
and your God" (Is.59.2). There are three aspects to our being. We
are composed of spirit, soul and body. As the bible says, "The
wages of sin is death" (Rom.6.23), this refers to spiritual death
or loss of intimate communion with God. Spiritual death creates a
deficit in the two remaining aspects of our being, soul and body.
The Holy Spirit is the soul's clothing before God and man.
Spiritual death lays our soul bare and we become naked. When our
soul becomes naked we, like Adam and Eve are overcome with shame.
Our sense of shame causes us to hide from God and man. "Adam and
his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD" (Gen.
3:8).

It is interesting the first act of the newly enlightened couple
was to try and cover their sin and shame by their own works.
"they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons."
(Gen.3.7). Today as then our own works are still insufficient to
cleanse us from our sin. "Woe to the rebellious children, saith
the LORD... that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit"
(Is.30:1).

We hide from God by keeping our distance from him lest we are
forced to confront our weak and unclean state. We may continue
going to church but our hearts are not before God. "For every one
that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved." (John 3:20).


As a consequence of our seared conscience true praise will cease
and prayer will decrease and be ineffective. "If I regard
iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear" ( Ps.66.18). The
believer is simply in a state of self deception. We know we are
in sin and God knows we are in sin but we somehow think we can
postpone the inevitable.

The problem with this approach is the longer we wait to confess
our sin the harder our heart and conscience become. "lest any of
you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." (Heb.3:13). We
may find ourselves overcome with the blackness of sin and unable
to repent. Hopefully our merciful God will break us once again
and restore us to a right relationship with Him.

We hide from man by building walls. We present a fine facade but
imprison ourselves with the very walls we erect to keep others
out. The longer we harbour and hide our sin the more it
compounds.

As we be come immersed deeper and deeper into sin we find the
company we prefer changes. We begin to find we have more in
common and are more comfortable with the sinner than the saint.
We may even find we prefer to associate with greater sinners than
ourselves. We do this to lessen our own sense of guilt by our
comparison with their more excessive, degenerate state. The
dimmer the light of the soul becomes the darker we prefer our
surroundings that we may detect the little light we have left.

Depending on the degree and severity of our sin our body, the
third aspect of our being, may suffer greatly and show the strain
or we may be able to pass ourselves off as healthy. The eminence
and radiance of the Holy Spirit is what gives our body true rest
and a supernatural vitality. So although we may get by physically
with our chosen sin we are not living to the full potential we
were designed for and are more susceptible to sickness and
disease. The one aspect of our physical being which will betray
our fallen state to the discerning eye is "the window to our
soul". "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye
be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine
eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness." (Mt.
6.22-23).

The result of the deficiency within the three aspects of our
being is we are not able to be what God meant us to be to and for
those people He has placed in our lives. The division created by
our sin causes us to become "two" rather than the "one" with
our spouse as God intended. "So they are no longer two, but one."
(Mt.19:6)NIV. With our friends we can no longer provide the
support and encouragement they need "Brethren, if a man be
overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one
in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be
tempted." (Gal.6:1). With our children we cannot be the example
they require. Children are affected more by what we do than what
we say. If we have sin in our lives they will see our lack of
sincerity and conviction. When our actions contradict our
confession this is called hypocrisy. "Train up a child in the way
he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart
from it." (Prb.22:6). With the sinner we cannot speak out against
sin because sin has overcome us "While they promise them liberty,
they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man
is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage." (2 Pet.
2:19).

The greatest and saddest effect of our "unseen" sin is that we
can no longer give and receive love as God intends and all suffer
the loss.
..........

Note:

This is entered on my blog during the Feast of Unleavened Bread
2012. It was taken from the March issue of "Thy Kingdom come" but
I purposely entered it now during the Unleavened Bread Feast, as
it is so appropriate for this Spring feast.

It is the time to examine ourselves, to let the Word of God
correct us, show us our sins. It is the special Feast where the
law of God is to be a mirror to look at ourselves, to see
ourselves in the light of God's Law and Word; it is the special
time to not walk away from that mirror and forget what we saw.

Yes this is the time of year we especially need to be humble, to
admit our weaknesses, our wrong thoughts, words, deeds; it is a
time to see where we have missed the mark, fallen short; the time
to again fully realize we are saved by grace, not by all the good
times where we have observed the commandments of God. It is the
time of year we climb down off the ladder of proud righteousness
and admit we are still sinners.

Yes it is the time for humility, but it is also the time we
praise our Father in heaven, and Christ Jesus, for their love,
their kindness, their mercy and grace, in NOT dealing with us as
we deserve. It is the time brethren to be so thankful that our
Father in heaven is so patient with us ..... words fail me, and
fail you ..... we groan within ourselves, to adequately express
our thankfulness for God's grace.

It is the time of year to again deeply remember not only the
death of Christ, His shed blood, on our behalf, but also that
Jesus rose from the dead, by the power of God's Holy Spirit, to
be our living High Priest on the Father's right hand, to
intercede for us, when we miss the mark, when we sin. We are
saved not only by the death of Christ but also by His life
(Rom.5:10).

It is time to read again 1 John chapter one into chapter two, and
maybe the book of Hebrews.


I have also just finished the book of Ephesians on my Youtube
(1horsesrcool) and chapters 5 and 6 are very good chapters to
read during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, maybe read them in
different translations.

It is the time of year to remember many things about our
salvation.
......