Time and again Biblical history demonstrates that sins of silence
and omission are just as fatal as sins of public, physical commission.
- Sarah omitted to say that Abraham was her husband; and was
reproved (Gen. 20:16).
- Onan omitted to raise up seed to his brother, and was slain
(Gen. 38:10).
- To omit to hate evil is the same as to commit it (Ps. 36:4).
- Because David omitted to enforce the Law's requirements
concerning the transport of the tabernacle, a man died. His commission
of good didn't outweigh his omission here (1 Chron. 15:13).
- The sin of omitting obedience was as bad as committing
witchcraft (1 Sam. 15:23).
- We have a debt to preach to the world; we are their debtors,
and yet this isn't how we often see it (Rom. 1:14). Time and again
we commit sins of omission here.
- Samuel would have sinned against Yahweh if he ceased to pray
for Israel in their weakness (1 Sam. 12:23). We so easily give
up in prayer for the weak.
- Adam's sin of commission (i.e. eating the fruit) may well have
been a result of his sins of omitting to go forth out of the centre
of the garden and multiply. By one man's inattention (Rom. 5:19
Gk.) sin came into the world. This needs some meditation (see
Study 6.10.3).
- The Lord taught that to wangle one's way out of caring
for their parents by delegating it to the synagogue was effectively
cursing them, and those guilty must " die the death"
(Mk. 7:10,11). To him who knows to do good but does it not, this
omission is counted as sin (James 4:17- written in the context
of brethren omitting to help each other). Likewise He said that if Had omitted to heal the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath, this would have been 'doing evil' and even 'killing' (Mk. 3:4). That's how seriously He took omitting to do good when it's in our power to do it.
- Because the priests omitted to care for Israel,
they were counted as the wolves- their sin of omission was counted
as one of commission (Ez. 34:9,10).
- Ps. 44:20 balances the sin of omission against the sin
of commission: “If we have forgotten the name of our God [omission],
or stretched out our hands to a strange god” [commission]. It makes a good exercise to watch for how many times the Proverbs treat sins of omission as if they are sins of active commission. "He that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster" (Prov. 18:9)- 'mere' laziness, as we may see it, an omission of working- is the same as the commission of a purposefully destructive person. And to laze away our hours is perhaps a temptation in this generation as never before. He who doesn't help those terminally ill, saying within himself "Behold, we know it not"- will be judged by God "according to his works" (Prov. 24:11,12). The internal turning of a blind eye in our attitude is in fact an active 'work' which will be judged at the last day. And again, our generation has many opportunities to walk on by and claim we never knew. When we did. And there's no generation like ours for rewarding that attitude, when it's actually one that could lead to our eternal condemnation. For we are all terminally ill and need God's urgent, saving attention.
- To not lend to one's poor brother will be counted to us as
sin (Dt. 15:9).
- If we omit to 'visit' the fatherless (in the Hebrew sense of
coming close to, getting involved with, not just 'popping in to
see')- then our religion is defiled and impure (James 1:27).
- " As troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company
of priests murder in the way" (Hos. 6:9) is the basis for
the Lord's parable of the injured man on the Jericho road. But
He turns it round- He makes a difference between the robbers and
the priest. And yet according to this Hosea passage, there is
no difference between the robbers and the priest who passes by.
Surely the point of the allusion to Hosea 6:9 was that the priest
who omitted to help was as bad as the robbers who committed the
attack. This is how serious are sins of omission.
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