As verses 15–17 show us, what concerns our author more here is that fighting of sin. In other words, when we come together as a church, even when we gather in small groups, what are we more likely to do, to talk about seeking God or to talk about our sin. I mean, honestly, when was the last time you asked someone in the church how their battle with sin was going? Do you even know what temptations and sins your brothers and sisters around you are facing? I mean the fact that we don’t know would be laughable to our author. I think he would say, how can you call yourselves a family, brothers and sisters, when you don’t even know the very struggles with sin that each of you are facing? And he’s right! How can we call ourselves close, how can we possibly help each other grow, if we are clueless to how each other are fighting sin?
In order to cultivate holiness, we must kill the earliest appearances of sin in our lives, and this is something we do in part collectively. You see, as we read in verse 15, God provides us the sufficient grace needed to overcome sin; yet, we seem to not avail ourselves of His grace. We could put sin to death, we could grow in the holiness of God only if we would receive His free aid! In order to help us, therefore, receive that grace and put sin to death, the New Testament exhorts us to work together to do this. 2 Cor. 6:1, “Working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain.” Hebrews 4:16, “Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need.” 1 Peter 1:13, “Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
How clear our author is then in saying to us we cannot tolerate indwelling sin either in ourselves or in others. Now this is not to say that we must condemn ourselves or one another every time there is sin; for we ultimately know that the blood of Christ has cleansed us from its stain and rescued us from condemnation. However, to tolerate or permit sin, or to ignore it will lead to falling short of the grace and holiness of God. We must be engaged in putting sin to death, and we must realize how much we need the encouragement and help of one another to do so, and how we must be ready and available to do the same for others. Every root of bitterness and wickedness must be fought at first appearance. We are never to turn a blind eye to one another’s sin, but to call it out at the very beginning, when it is easiest to destroy. Wouldn’t each of us rather have the earliest slip ups called out, rather than have to one day deal with an entirely destructive sinful behaviour? It’s far easier to deal with lust of the eye than it is to deal with someone trapped in adultery.
Our author closes this exhortation with I think a very appropriate example, Esau. You see Esau was not overtly wicked or sinful. I mean if we were to list examples of wicked men in the Old Testament, I doubt any of us would have Esau ranked very highly on that list. But what we are to see is that Esau is not an example to us of a person trapped in terrible sinful habits; Esau is an example of the many people who sit in our pews, fill out our church roles, live as members of our church community and are completely indifferent to the spiritual things of God. Esau is an example of a person void of spiritual values. He’s not antagonistic to righteousness, but more concerned with other things than spiritual realities.
How aptly this characterizes so many in the church, and how dangerous such a person is. You see such a person goes through life without ever having a major stumble or getting caught in a scandalous situation. Such a person tends to fly under the radar. Such a person may be sitting in the pew next to you and you would never know the spiritual danger they are in, because from an outsider’s perspective, they seem fine, they seem without any major sin. And yet, though such a person has a decent appearance, inside they are consumed with the greatest sin of all; the sin of idolatry. This person cares more for work than Christ, for family than Christ, for hobbies or free time or relaxation more than Christ. Christ is so far low on their list of concerns and priorities that rarely is such a person genuinely engaged in the things of God.
This person, our author argues, is a demonstration of our failure as a church family to be invested and involved in one another’s spiritual growth. If we were engaged in one another we would see their spiritual indifference, it would concern us, we would have legitimate ground to question their salvation. But because we don’t know what’s going on in each other’s lives, because we are indifferent or because we turn a blind eye to the man or woman who is spiritually lukewarm, such a person spends their entire life in the church thinking all is well, but at the judgment seat is told by Jesus, I never knew you. As our author writes in verse 17, on this final day, when this person realizes that Christ is to be our ultimate desire, it will be too late for repentance.
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