Dealing With “Secret Sin”
One of the most challenging lyrics we ever sing is in the song “Purer In Heart, O God.” Near the end of that song, we sing these words: “Keep me from secret sin; reign Thou my soul within.” Those are very easy (and beautiful) words to sing, but when I truly let my mind contemplate what is coming from my mouth, I have to ask myself if I really mean those words.
When we think of “secret sin,” we could talking about actions that no one else knows about, such as a gambling problem or pornography addiction, or we would be talking about sins of our attitude, such as jealousy, bitterness, greed, covetousness, or hatred. The obvious point, though, is that these are sins that are hidden from other people.
These types of sins can be the most difficult to deal with, in part because of their secret nature. Since no one else really knows about them, there is virtually no accountability. While we might hear a sermon or a Bible class that mentions these types of things, there is not another person who is “seeing” them in my life, and helping me by calling me out for them.
So, how do we deal with secret sin? While not an exhaustive list, here are five things that, if done with humility and effort, can help us work to overcome these things.
1. Call them what they are: sin. Because they are not “known,” it can be easy to just treat these things as less than other sins. But sin is sin, and we must be willing to know that we are struggling with something that will keep us out of heaven should we not seek to overcome it.
2. Confess them. Because they are “secret,” it may be that you confess these sins only to God. But it may also be helpful to confess this struggle to a faithful Christian or even to a group of Christians. God will forgive if we truly repent. But people cannot help you if they do not know what it is you are struggling with. Remember, if you are confessing these things, confess specifically. In other words, don’t just say, “I’m struggling with some things.” Be willing to say that you are struggling with your anger (or lust or bitterness or whatever it is).
3. Cease! I know that stopping a secret sin is easier said than done, but we must seek to stop. For example, having “just a little” bitterness in our heart and excusing it as such is dangerous. We must seek to root out the entirety of our sin and stop it if we want to overcome it. Obviously, we will struggle at times, but we cannot excuse “a little” bit of sin. We must stop it.
4. Continue in good things. It is not enough just to stop the bad. We must fill our lives with the good. Thus the lyric of the song, “reign Thou my soul within.” In one of Jesus’s illustrations, He spoke of an evil spirit that leaves, but when it comes back, “it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order” (Matthew 12:44). That sounds good, but the illustration ends terribly, because the spirit brings seven others to fill that house and “the last state of that person is worse than the first” (verse 45). Why? Because the house was clean, but it was not filled with good things! If you struggle with secret sin, fill your mind with Scripture, with beautiful Christian hymns, with the joys of Christian fellowship, and with other good and godly things. That will help you fight as you go forward.
5. Captivate your thoughts. Paul gave a great principle in 2 Corinthians 10:5, where he wrote that he was taking “every thought captive to obey Christ.” Notice the totality of that: every thought. It is as if Paul, with every thought he had, examined it for a moment and, if it was not Christ-like, threw it away. What an example, and what a reminder that we can be faithful and pure in what we sometimes call our “thought life.”
In my opinion, the most important thing we can add to this list is the sentiment shared by the lyrics with which this article began. If we struggle with secret sins, we need to pray fervently that God will help us overcome them. We know He desires that we are, in the words of that song, “Purer in heart,” so it stands to reason that He would help us if we earnestly seek His help, even in this area of life.
“Purer in heart, O God, Help me to be.”
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AUTHOR: Adam Faughn
