If You Know The Good that You Should Do

If you know the good that you should do and do not do it, you sin. (my paraphrase of James 4:17)

I read very few blogs and books these days. I go to church once a week. I do not listen to sermons by pod cast or on TV or on the radio. But I seem to keep hearing the message to sell all that you have and give to the poor, to give every day, to be radical, to live communally like Acts 2, to live each day as if it is your last, to repent from living at ease in Zion and on and on.

Honestly, my heart rebels at many of these notions.

Perhaps it is because I just can't wrap my mind around the idea or expectation presented. Perhaps I don't want to. Perhaps it is because I naturally rebel against any church movement of the day...before this it was the men's-movement, preceded by the small group movement, which was preceded by the seeker-friendly mega-church, which was preceded by the introduction of "worship" music which, I am sure, was preceded by some other popular notion. Perhaps I am just resenting the pressure to do and be what someone else is doing and being. Perhaps I am frustrated at the tacit expectation to display someone else's perceived notion of spirituality. Perhaps I am internalizing something from God's Word and He is quite simply making me uncomfortable.

Regardless, the message from James seems appropriate. If anyone, then, knows the good that they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them. (NIV)

I do not know exactly what I should do, but I am actively asking and seeking. I am not saying that I am somehow excused from the clear commands of Jesus just because I "don't feel prompted;" I believe this is one of the greatest temptations to sin by omission in our day. If anything, I am feeling the persuasion of the whole counsel of God's Word on the topics of the sojourner, the poor and the widow; the deceitfulness of riches; the yoke of the oppressed; feeding the hungry; walking humbly; loving mercy; not turning away from your own flesh and blood. Perhaps that is why these words keep swirling around in my head. So any person who knows what is right to do but does not do it, to him it is sin. (Amp)

And do you want to know what I think? I think God just wants me to act. Be thoughtful. Be bold. Be creative. Be giving. Be loving. And in some way I think God is also saying, "Be yourself."

I (I, not necessairly everyone) need to give in secret...because I need to avoid the sin of the hypocrites who announced their gifts with trumpets. I need to give like St. Nicholas...because I have a tendency toward pride and self-righteousness. If I give to the needy I need to not let my left hand know what my right hand is doing...because my re-telling of my good deeds does not spur anyone else on to love and good deeds (because I do not have the gift of exortation). I need to act and give in a certain way because that is how God usually prompts me, because that is how I like to to give and because this is how God made me.

And that is why if you know the good that you should do and do not do it, you sin.

Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. (NLT)