“Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it” (James 4:17).

As I think about James 4:17, I’m reminded that sometimes some of the greatest nuggets in God’s Word are hidden in plain sight, yet other times they’re tucked away and preserved for a specific time and reason. We hear much taught on the subject of committing sin (the act of commission), but how many times have we heard about the sin of “omission.” James defines this principle in very simple terminology. When God tells us to do something that is good, and we choose to disobey His will, then the good that we don’t do becomes sin to us. I can imagine hearing someone responding, “I’m just now grasping the understanding of the sin of commission, and now this!”

When God created the earth and everything on the earth, including the trees, God looked at what He had created, and said it was good. When He created man and finished His work on the earth, God looked at everything that was completed, and He said it was very good. Having said this let me ask you a question. Was the Tree of Knowledge evil? If everything that God created was good, and the tree of knowledge was created by God, then it too was good. So, if it was good, what made it evil? God set boundaries around that particular tree and commanded man not to eat of it. Since man didn’t obey God in the good thing that he was supposed to do, Adam’s actions then became sin. So, it wasn’t that the tree was evil; it was that Adam chose to sin against God’s will, which produced the evil. When people live in denial of sin, they tend to blame their sin on “outward elements” instead of confessing their sin which comes from “an evil heart of unbelief”.

When God appeared to Abram in Genesis 12, He commanded Abram to leave his father’s house and his relatives. He departed from his father’s house and his kinfolks, but he took his nephew, Lot, with him. Is hanging out with relatives a sin? Of course not! But if the Lord tells you to separate from them as He had instructed Abram to do, and you don’t do as God asks, to you it is sin. The sin of omission is just as much a promise blocker as the sin of commission. When Adam didn’t do what he was supposed to do, didn’t it get him driven out of the garden of God? The sin of omission caused Adam to lose the provision of God, along with the promise of dominion and blessings.

In Genesis 12 – 19, we find that Abram desired for God to fulfill His promise of a son, but God’s hands were tied by Abram’s partial obedience. Partial obedience can be justified, but isn’t justified in God’s eyes. We see this, because Abram couldn’t receive the promised seed (Isaac) until he and Lot parted company. If you will read Genesis 21, you will see that God appears to Abraham after Lot has settled in Zoar and tells them that they are about to receive their promise. For twenty five years Abraham walked with Lot and for that same amount of time, God’s promise was being held up. Yet, the moment that Abraham fully obeyed, God was able to release Abraham and Sarah’s blessing of a son. Flesh and blood can’t inherit the kingdom of God. This means Christians must live according to the Holy Spirit and not according to our desires or our wills if we are going to walk in kingdom dominion in the earth. What are you not doing that you should be doing so that God can do what He has promised for you? Something for you to chew on today while you seek to please God by faith.

“Not everyone who calls out to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of My Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to Me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in Your name and cast out demons in Your name and performed many miracles in Your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from Me, you who break God’s laws.’ Anyone who listens to My teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears My teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash” (Matthew 7:21 – 27).  —submitted by Asa Dockery, US