What Do You Do With Your Sin?

By Ps Dev Menon

When you sin, what do you do next? Sounds like a strange question, right? 

Let’s say you insult your fellow church member, you steal from office, you cheat at a test in school, you lie to your boss, you watch pornography and masturbate all night, you abuse your spouse, you hit your child in anger, you flame someone on social media, you neglect the Sabbath, you ignore a neighbour in need. The Word of God calls all those things sins. So when you do those things, what do you do next? 

Do you ignore it? Do you sit around in guilt and shame for a few minutes and then get on with life? Do you mentally resolve to do better? Is that what we are supposed to do? 

If that’s the case, then we should not be surprised when those sins resurface and happen again. Or that those sins get pushed down deep inside and change into fear, anxiety, rage, sleeplessness, depression, or even numbness – a hardened heart and conscience.  

The Bible gives us a helpful ‘tool’ for sin – it’s called confession. To tell God and trusted other believers about what happened. Confession means we articulate what we did, we say sorry for it, and we ask God for forgiveness and cleansing; plus help to not do it again. 

James 5:16  Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

Confession is God’s prescribed means of addressing actual sins. Don’t let it be hidden in the darkness where it can do more harm; rather bring it into the light where it can be dealt with. Jesus Himself told us to pray this every day in the Lord’s Prayer – where we regularly raise and ask forgiveness for sins. Saints of old called it ‘applying the cross’. 

In fact, I dare say, the more we want to be ‘healed’ from that sin, or the root causes of that sin, or the after-effects of that sin, the more we need to confess. Again, both to God and to increasing circles of other believers, always asking for help. More light = more healing. 

We have much experience of this in our X3A group. It’s really hard at first, but then it becomes a liberating thing – the sin does not bind us as much, as we bring it corporately to Christ. It takes a bit of practice to figure out how to do this best. Definitely not natural.

We still are lacking in this #getreal culture at Zion Bishan, but it is the very thing that Martin Luther said is “the glory of the church” – where the saints can confess their sins to one another and receive the forgiveness promised. This is the priesthood of all believers.

So… when’s the last time you confessed your sin?