Missing the Mark: The Sin of Omission
By Dean Collins
Have you sinned lately? You don’t need to email me a response! My answer is, of course. We tend to think of sin as doing something wrong. But lately I have realized that while I might be doing well in avoiding or not participating in behaviors and thoughts that we are taught in scripture to avoid, I am guilty of failing to do things we are directed to do.
The Greek word for sin in the New Testament is hamartia, which means “to miss the mark” or fail to hit the target. Sin is not just breaking a rule. It is failing to live up to God’s purpose and glory. This is why the apostle Paul could write: “For all have sinned (missed the mark) and fall short of the glory of God.
This morning as I read Psalm 100, it struck me how we are called to do several things that flow from our awareness of God’s presence:
* “Make a joyful noise to the Lord”
* “Serve the Lord with gladness”
* “Come into his presence with singing”
* “Enter his gates with thanksgiving”
* “Give thanks to him; bless his name!”
I suspect that we tend to read these more as invitations than directives. But I believe they might be both. Would you agree that it is a good thing to bring our joyful sounds of worship to the Lord? What about serving him with gladness? We tend to place verses like this as, “Well, that is for when I go to worship at church.” Our call to worship is far more than whether we attend a service on Sunday morning. Psalm 100 is describing a lifestyle of joyful gratitude. This may include when we go to church, but it is so much more. It is how we worship God through how we live our lives each day.
James said this in 4:17:
“So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”
Sit with that verse a minute. If we know that it is right to live our lives before God with the thanksgiving, joy, and even songs and declarations of praise, then is it sin to withhold these things from God?
We often think of sin as crossing a forbidden line. Yet, scripture teaches us that failing to do the good we know is still sin. Every time we fail to love, forgive, encourage, serve, or worship when we know we should, we miss the target. Perhaps our greatest omission is not forgetting a song on Sunday but forgetting the God who has given us every reason to sing on Monday.
Father, your word convicts us because we confess that we often think of simply avoiding certain behaviors in order to limit our sin. Forgive us for the many times we have known the good and right things to do and then ignored them. Today we choose to joyfully come into your presence. Fill us anew so that we might joyfully serve others in your name today. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Your Time with God’s Word
Psalm 100:1-5; James 4:17 ESV
Photo by Pexels
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