Sins of Omission | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 19, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 24.

Sins of Omission.

THE decalogue commands two things and forbids eight. Idolatry, image worship, profanity, murder, adultery, theft, perjury, and covetousness are forbidden; honoring the Sabbath and parents is commanded. These make the ten commandments, meant for all time and for all classes of men. According to the character of the law, part of it being negative, and part positive, so does sin also assume either a positive or a negative form, for “sin is the transgression of the law;” and therefore theologians have long agreed to speak of sins, the fruit of our sinfulness, as of a twofold character, either sins of commission or sins of omission.

It is of the latter we purpose specially to speak. While we must regard the sins of omission of the most serious character, in the popular mind they are evidently regarded as of far less gravity than those sins which are committed, such as murder, theft, adultery, perjury, etc., which are justly and swiftly met by the penalties of the law, both civil and ecclesiastical, and any such transgressions are deemed flagrant and terrible.

But what of the sins of omission? Are his commands any less the law of God than things which he forbids? Are they less important? They are fewer in number, simpler in form, and have much less to do with detail; but they are most comprehensive and vital. They are chiefly these: We are commanded to love God, our parents, our neighbor, and regard the Sabbath. But, really, as the apostle says, “Love is the fulfilling of the law,” for if we love God, we shall so love his worship, his laws, his service, that we shall naturally “remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy,” as a day of rest, and on which to honor and worship him; and if we love our neighbor, yea, even our enemies, we shall certainly love our father and mother, if so be that the love of Christ dwelleth in us.

The positive commands of God, therefore, while they are simpler than the negative, are all comprehensive. They take in the whole sphere of human duty. They embrace the negative, for this, “Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”—Rom. 13: 9, 10.

When our divine Master was asked which was the greatest of all commandments, he gave no one of the prohibitions, but gave love to God and man as the greatest, most important, the all-comprehensive law, and yet the violation of this law is merely a “sin of omission.” Who can fail to see that what the popular church thought is apt to regard as merely a short-coming, or a fault, is the greatest of all sins, since it is the violation of the greatest of all the laws of God? Who does not see that to be without love to God and man is to be a rebel and an enemy? That without love to God, even outward obedience is only a negative virtue, if not an abominable servility in his sight? And yet all this is “only” a “sin of omission.”

While the State imprisons thieves and perjurers, and hangs murderers, and the church expels them as unworthy of being in the brotherhood of believers, yet how little regard is paid to sins of omission! Why is it? Partly, of course, because it is a matter of the heart, and to judge the heart belongs only to the “Searcher of hearts;” partly, also, because there is so much “dissimulation” that passes for love; and partly because the good we do, which is the fruit of love and the best evidence of its existence, is often limited and hindered by causes which are beyond our control. But while, for this reason, we cannot gauge the love to God and humanity by the amount of good any one does, the doing of evil to our neighbor is proof positive of the temporary or total absence of such love to God. For “love worketh no ill to his neighbor.”

Another feature: The omission to love God and man is a great sin which God only fully sees. To the eyes of men it may be veiled by hypocrisy and pretense. Insincere persons may therefore flatter themselves with its possession because they have learned to dissimulate, and are receiving credit from others for being what they are not. But to God’s eye they are bare. They themselves will be all weakness and impotence for being devoid of the motive power in the soul which impels to all good. What a man loves to do he will do well, gladly, constantly. Hence it is that lovers of Christ “count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.” But the great omission, the failing to love God and man, will make every duty a burden, every exertion a task.

The positive laws of God, which command us to do something, and begin by commanding first of all to love God, are the most essential to the building up of a sturdy, godly character. A negative Christian—one who simply does nothing, and therefore does no evil, or does simply refrain from gross violations of what God has forbidden, is a very poor sample of a follower of Christ. He is a carpet knight in this warfare. He is a negative, a passive nothing. He develops no strength in himself, nor does he accomplish anything for the Master. He will fail of being a rounded-out and manly Christian, and he will fail of securing his own salvation, for we must “work out our own salvation;” and work does not mean idleness.

It follows, therefore, from all that has been said, that while sins of omission are not readily punished by either the civil or church law—that while they are reached with great difficulty, and conviction therefore can be produced only by the searching agency of the Spirit which searcheth all things, they are of the gravest character and of the deepest dye. If we would be true to God, to our neighbor, to ourselves; if we would become perfect and fully developed after the model that the Bible holds up; if we would be successful and diligent workers for Christ, we must thoroughly try ourselves, and, discovering our spiritual poverty and emptiness, seek from that Fountain of all love an overflowing measure. This will make us acceptable in the sight of God, and endow us with such vigor and working power, such an unquenchable vitality, that even death cannot conquer it; but their full fruition will be a glorious immortality. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.”—Evangelical Messenger.