No matter how private or secret a sin might be, it can’t ever be hidden from God. The Bible is clear in many instances, both New and Old Testament, that there are no secrets that can be kept from God.
Psalm 90:8
You have placed our iniquities before You, Our secret sins in the light of Your presence.
Psalm 19:12
Who can detect his own mistake? Cleanse me from hidden sin.
Matthew 6 has 2 passages which show what is done in secret is known by God, too. Same with Joshua 7 where it shows Achan thought he could get away with stealing and in 2 Samuel 11-12 which talks about King David’s sin and his response is the kind of response we should all adopt as our own rather than trying to make excuses for it: “I have sinned against the Lord.”
The best way to tackle any “secret sin” is to acknowledge it before God and ask for forgiveness.
Psalm 32:5
Finally, I confessed all my sins to You
and stopped trying to hide my guilt.
I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.”
And You forgave me! All my guilt is gone.
Psalm 51:2-4
Wash away my guilt
and cleanse me from my sin.
For I am conscious of my rebellion,
and my sin is always before me.
Against You—You alone—I have sinned
and done this evil in Your sight.
So You are right when You pass sentence;
You are blameless when You judge.
People who keep their secret sins are usually found out. I recall there was a Christian singer who always told people not to do drugs but she did drugs herself. One of the people she was hanging out and smoking weed with recorded and released the video online and of course she went on to apologize and everything like you’re supposed to if you’re trying to save your career, and later on she went on to say that having secret sins are no way for a Christian to behave because that’s living a double life and one life will always end up clashing with the other.
Also worth mentioning is that even if you affect no one else you’re still affecting one person, yourself. Your secret sin is a stumbling block to your walk with the Lord. There will never be such a thing as not influencing someone negatively because there will always be at least one person who will be affected by your sins, your own self.
God knows I’ve struggled with that in the past and every day I try my best to go on and conform to His image. Every day I have to remind myself that I am a new creation in Christ and that the past is gone and I have been made anew and cleansed by His blood. We learn from our mistakes and grow as people and get stronger in our walk with Christ. Some will choose not to grow closer to God and rather conform to the world so they can freely embrace their sins, but those who belong to Him will never be satisfied with sin.
We can never allow ourselves into thinking we’re doing okay with our walk with the Lord just because we’re doing better than another Christian. As J. C. Ryle said: “Let us never measure our religion by that of others, and think we are doing enough if we have gone beyond our neighbors.” I hate when I lose my temper or mess up another way and end up compromising my testimony with people that know me because then they can think they’re okay since they’re doing better than me in some department. We’re not supposed to look up to anyone else besides Christ. None of us are good role models, only Christ is. As the Bible says, “if we say we are His, we must follow the example of Christ.”
None of our deeds are acceptable before a holy God even in the best-case scenario. Isaiah 64:6 says that our “righteous acts are like filthy rags” before God. We can’t ever earn our salvation, it’s a gift from God and God alone. The good news is that it’s never too late to change. It’s never too late to turn away from sin and seek the Lord. It’s never too late to ask for forgiveness and repent.
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