Proverbs 11:1

“A false balance is an abomination to the Lord,
but an accurate weight is his delight.” NRSV

There was a story out on the news a few days ago about a gas station that was adding a tenth of a cent to each gallon sold and not reporting it to the consumer. Now, that doesn’t seem like much: just 1¢ for every ten gallons of gas. Most of us don’t even pick up a penny off the ground when we see one. But when this gas station was found out, the results were amazing, into the thousands of dollars each month.

A balance, a scale, is a hard thing to calibrate. It can be off a few milligrams and not even show the discrepancy. But over time, that discrepancy can add up to a lot.

It’s the same with sin. There are little sins in my life that just don’t seem that big of a deal: a little lie here, doing personal business on company time, “borrowing” a pen I don’t return, parking on the neighbor’s lot without permission. But what I often don’t realize is that little sins will invariably lead to big sins. Just like the little hole in the dam will eventually wash away more and more of the dam to create a waterfall, little sins unchecked (and unconfessed) will eventually lead to a waterfall of sins, to an attitude that it just isn’t that big of a deal.

Doing something over and over again creates a habit. And we all know that we often do habitual behavior without even thinking about it. We can sin in the same manner. If we do a sin enough times, it will become a habit. At that point, our conscience might not even convict us. (Not even a little). The sin will simply spill out of our lives like a flood. Even as believers, we can become callous to certain sins if we aren’t very, very careful.

Just as a false balance is an abomination to the Lord, so is unchecked, habitual sin. That’s why daily confession is so important. When we are (even brutally) examining our lives for possible sin and then confessing what we discover, we are working to create an “accurate weight” in our lives. Going even further, how many times have I asked the Holy Spirit to reveal the sins in my life that I’m unable to identify? How concerned am I really about living a life that’s pleasing to the Lord?

As uncomfortable as guilt is, it is our indicator that our scale is out of balance and needs to be realigned by Heavenly standards. Rather than avoiding that (very distressing) feeling by doing something else, we should confront it head-on with prayer and confession. Our Father is well able to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But first we have to be willing to confess that sin, to admit that our scale has become a false balance.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).