Sins of Omission | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 28, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 41.

Sins of Omission.

THERE is a very common feeling that sins of omission are not so bad as sins of commission; that a mere failure to do all that one might do, that, in fact, one ought to do, is not really such a serious matter in the sight of God or of man, as the actual doing of something that one clearly ought not to do. Yet this is a distinction in grades of evil that is by no means justified by the Bible record, on the one hand, or by the relative practical consequences of neglect and of performance, on the other hand. To strike a child in a moment of angry feeling, or to speak words of unkindness under provocation, is a sin of commission; every one can realize that fact. The consciousness of having done such a thing will, perhaps, cause keen self-reproach and bitter self-condemnation to the over-hasty one who has been guilty of it. To fail of reaching out a hand of rescue to a drowning child within arm's length of one, on a river's bank or by the ocean's beach, is, in its form, a sin of omission; but its spirit would be cruel heartlessness, and its result would be practically murder. So, again, to fail of speaking a word of warning to one who is in obvious and yet in unconscious danger, or to fail of giving a needful word of counsel or of cheer when the opportunity is present, may involve far weightier consequences, and may be a truer index of the neglectful one's character, than would be the speaking of any number of ill-natured words, or even than the performance of a dozen acts of selfish meanness. A cold-blooded refusal to say or to do the right and the kindly thing in an emergency, may both be worse and seem worse than a hot-blooded saying or doing of the wrong or the unkindly thing under other provocation.

As if in proof of God's estimate of the larger evil of sins of omission, it is recorded in the Bible picture of the great day of account, that the final sentence against those who are utterly condemned will make no mention of their sins of commission, but only of their sins of omission. In view of their failure to feed Christ's hungry ones, to clothe his naked ones, to visit and comfort his sick and oppressed ones, the word of the Judge will go forth: “Inasmuch as ye did it not [as ye omitted to do] . . . depart from me, ye cursed.” Sins of omission are fearful sins; their consequences are terrible. God preserve us from the curse of not doing! It often requires great self-control to refrain from speaking hastily or from doing wickedly. It sometimes requires yet greater control of self to overcome one's sluggish, or one's selfish, reluctance to speak the kindly word of warning or of cheer which ought to be forthcoming, or to do the nobly generous act that the occasion demands. But in view of the greater evil of not doing in the line of duty, let us rise up in the strength of Christ, and do—or die!—S. S. Times.