Daily Java: Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. (James 4:17)
It is called the sin of omission, not doing what you should have done.
Jesus told a parable, the one we call the Parable of the Good Samaritan. A guy was beaten by robbers and left to die on the road. Two religious leaders came by and walked on the other side of the road so that they could ignore him. a Samaritan, a member of a group of people who were disliked by the Jews, stopped and helped him. The religious leaders were guilty of the sin of omission.
There is someone on the sidewalk who needs medical help and you pass them by. Someone needs food and you pass them off. Someone needs the gospel and you do nothing.
It isn’t that you actively do wrong. It is that you do nothing.
James, the writer of the above passage, says that not doing right is as bad as doing wrong.
It doesn’t matter that you have not done anything wrong, what matters is that you have done nothing.
Maybe it is as small as something like encouragement. You never told your children that they were something special. You never told your wife you loved her.
“Do you love me? How come you never say so?” “I told you I loved you when we got married. If things change I’ll tell you then.”
Someone walks out in front of a speeding car they didn’t see. You see it and do nothing to stop them. “I didn’t push them out there,” you say. That is true, but by your silence, you have sinned.
Any time you should do something good and do not do it, no matter how small, you have done wrong. There is no neutral ground in the kingdom of God. Switzerland and Sweden mentalities have no place in God’s kingdom.
Jesus said, in Matthew 12:30, Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. You are either for him wholeheartedly or you are against wholeheartedly. God is either in your heart or he isn’t.
There was the old political party in the 19th century called the Mugwumps. They were characterized by a picture of a person sitting on a fence, with his mug on one side and his wump on the other. In other words, someone who would not take a stand either way.
There are no Mugwumps in the kingdom. You either do what is good and glorify God or you do not and sin.
That sounds kind of harsh, but it is truth.
As someone once said, I would rather wear out than rust out.
Doing good is not an option. It is a mandate.
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