Articles
Digging Through the Garbage
During my recent meeting in Columbus, Ohio, a brother told a story on himself (repeated here with his permission). One day at work he found that someone had thrown his food container in the garbage. He had a pretty good idea of who the culprit was, so in retaliation he tossed their lunch in the dumpster.
After thinking awhile about his act of revenge, his conscience was pricked and he decided to retrieve the Tupperware. So into the dumpster he went, digging until he found the target of his ire. Someone remarked that this was a fitting analogy of repentance: Sin takes us into the garbage pit of life, and sometimes you have to get messy in order to make amends.
Thoughts:
1. Our impulses often get us in trouble. When we have a chance to sit and contemplate a course of action, we often do pretty well in thinking properly. But Satan is a master of surprise. He catches us off-guard and tries to override rational thought. Our emotions take over and we sometimes react in an ungodly way without due circumspection.
A mark of maturity is dealing effectively with pressure, not getting caught up in the moment but retaining perspective and clarity. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:23; 2 Pet 1:6) and is essential in the character makeup of elders (1 Tim 3:2). Without self-control, impulsiveness almost always escalates a situation instead of moderating it.
2. Before repentance is forthcoming, we must accept responsibility for our sins and seek to resolve them. A tender conscience is part of this process, and it is vital that we guard and sharpen it. If we habitually ignore our convicting inner voice, we neutralize a crucial warning device.
Sometimes our spiritual “check engine” light is a false warning. That is, a guilty feeling may not be based on actual sin. Our conscience may be overactive, or we may experience a general unease that we aren’t as fervent or fruitful as we should be. But sometimes the “check engine” light is a sign of impending doom, and we ignore it to our peril. Paul protected his conscience at all times: “I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day” (Ac 23:1); “I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men” (Ac 24:16); “For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity” (2 Cor 1:12).
David famously seared his conscience for a while regarding his adultery with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah, and it took a “surprise attack” by Nathan to wake him up. But David’s own testimony shows that during this wilderness period he was truly miserable, for he had not completely disconnected his moral sensor (cf. Ps 32:1-5).
3. If our conscience convicts us for good reason; i.e., we know we’ve done wrong, the next step is to acknowledge it and try to make amends. Scripture teaches that we are forgiven at the point of true confession and appeal to God for forgiveness (1 Jn 1:9; Ac 8:21-24). There is no hint of a probationary period or the prerequisite of seeking a human confessional (i.e., a priest/preacher/elder to secure approval; “going forward” before the congregation). However, sin has earthly consequences. It hurts others, destroys our influence, creates strife. The natural response of a penitent disciple of Christ is to mitigate the damage one has done, to “bear fruits worthy of repentance” (Lk 3:8). In our article last week we cited Manasseh as an example of this. Sadly, much of the damage he had done could not be reversed, but this did not affect his forgiveness from God.
Sometimes there is no possibility of correcting the harm we have caused. If we committed murder, we cannot revive the dead. We may steal more than we can ever repay. We may never receive the mercy and/or good will of our victim or their family and friends. Lies are already accepted as truth by those we do not know. It may be that those guilty of sin are so overcome by the consequences that they cannot forgive themselves and either live in a perpetual state of self-loathing or abandon their faith altogether. Paul warned about creating such feelings in the guilty party in Corinth: “You ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow … I urge you to reaffirm your love to him” (2 Cor 2:7-8).
Sin is a horrible thing and always does great harm to us, to others and to God. But sin doesn’t have to have the last word. We may have to dig through the dumpster to make corrections, but a clear conscience and the peace that comes with it is worth the effort.
