Sarah stood just inside her tent, out of sight from Abraham and the three visitors who had come to them. She wanted to hear their conversation. One of the strangers told Abraham the most unexpected thing ever: “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” Sarah’s first reaction was unbelief. To her this was simply not possible. Her second reaction, hard on the heels of the first, was to laugh. Not only was it impossible, but to her it was ludicrous. Sarah’s sin has two distinct parts. The first may be called the sin of omission: she failed to believe the message. The second may be called the sin of commission: she did something terrible. She laughed at God’s promise.

This distinction can help us get a deeper insight into sin. When you review what you have done in the day past, it may well be possible that you cannot think of any particular sin that you have committed. You have not become angry with anyone; you have not gossiped; you have not permitted your mind to indulge in sinful fantasies. You may not have committed such a sin as Sarah did by laughing at God’s promise.

But just because you cannot think of a sin which you have actually committed, does that mean that you have not sinned? This is an important issue because we should pray with conviction. We should not pray for the forgiveness of sins if we can’t think of any sins that need to be forgiven. We should not confess our sins with a vague sense that we haven’t really sinned. It is well known that God will only receive us when we approach his throne with our hearts broken and our spirits crushed because of sin. Should we feel badly, then, if at the end of the day we cannot identify horrible sins that we have committed in the day past?

If we expand our concept of sin to include sins of omission, we will get a deeper insight into personal sin. While on some days our fellowship with God may be so intense that we are not able to easily identify any obvious sins that we have committed, at the end of the day, there will always be more than enough sins of omission to crush us. In fact, the sins of omission are the worst of them all. This is a point that is easily illustrated.

When Eli saw that his sons were abusing their priestly office, he was deeply grieved. When he heard from the people the things that they were doing, he rebuked them. But what grieved him more was that they did not love Yahweh. Any godly parent will be more grieved at the failure of their children to love God, then by the horrible things they actually do. The fact that Eli’s sons were committing such gross things as stealing from the holy sacrifices and abusing the women who came to worship at the temple, was only the working out of their failure to love God.

Or consider this example. Pontius Pilate stood Jesus before the people side-by-side with Barabbas and asked the people to choose whom to release. Jesus had loved this people. He had healed their sick, fed the hungry and comforted those who grieved. And now he loved them with what remained of his life. He was ready to die for them. He had every reason to expect them to love Him in return. “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” Pilate asked. Of course they will say “Jesus.” They said, “Not this man, but Barabbas!”

Of all the horrible things our Lord endured at the hands of men, this must have been the very worst. Whatever else they might do to Him, makes little difference. Their cries, “Crucify Him!” simply completed what they had begun. They did not love Him, so they hated Him. They could not have committed such a gross thing if they had not failed to love Him.

Jesus had every reason to expect love from the people. God has every reason to expect unwavering love from us. God gives us countless gifts, and says, “Now show your love for me.” It is a terrible thing for us to use his gifts to commit sinful things. But what is worse, is that they seem to say that we don’t love God.

At the end of the day, we may not be able to identify things which show that we hate God or our neighbour, but it is enough that there are countless occasions when we have not shown love for God or our neighbour. The realization that we have omitted to show love should be like the breaking of all our bones. Nobody has any reason to keep his head high when going into God’s presence, because what we have failed to do is worse than any outward sin that we may have actually committed.