Proverbs 25:26... The Importance of Spiritual Hygiene

²⁶ Like a muddied spring or a polluted well is a righteous man who gives way to the wicked.

Proverbs 25:26

There is nothing that annoys me more than dust! 

Sin is a Bit Like Dust...

I spend all day cleaning my house and the next day (if the light hits the furniture correctly), what do I see?   Dust!  Dust is like sin… It never stops seeping into my house (See Genesis 4:7).  While we can live with dust, the one thing we cannot tolerate is unconfessed sin. 

Proverbs 25:26 warns us about the impact of sin.  It reminds us that sin is a pollutant that threatens to retard, limit or destroy our spiritual growth. 

Sin's Like Yeast...

Jesus compared sin to yeast in bread (See Matthew 16:5-12).  Yeast is the ingredient that causes bread to rise.  Dough without yeast produces flat crackers.  Jesus’ metaphor was meant to convey a point worth remembering… Just as it only takes a small amount of yeast to impact a whole batch of dough, it only takes a small amount of sin to negatively alter the progression our spiritual lives.

The Impact of Unconfessed Sin 

The affect of sin is tremendous…  Here are a few examples of the way it “muddies our wells."  Sin causes...

• Moral Apathy (See Hebrews 3:12-13),
• Decreased Productivity (or Spiritual Effectiveness),
• Increased Guilt  (See Psalm 32:1-5),
• And the Most Serious of all… A Broken Fellowship with God (See 1 John 1:5-7). 

The Bad News about Sin...

• Sin Impacts Us All (See 1 John 1:8-10)
• Sin is a Serious Threat... (See Romans 6:23)

The Good News is…

God tells us the way to handle sin in our lives!  The answer is to have great "Spiritual Hygiene."  Here are the basic steps to ensuring that unconfessed sin does not accumulate in your life...

• Know Jesus Christ is the Answer… He’s Paid the Cost for Us to be Free from Sin (See Isaiah 53:5-6; John 8:31-34; Romans 3:21-26; and Romans 5:6-11)

• Make Confession Part of You Daily and Ongoing Spiritual Routine… When Jesus taught us to pray, confession was an important part of the model (See 1 John 1:9 and Matthew 6:5-15)

• Allow God to be Your Strength… Once you confess your sins, fill your heart, soul and mind with God’s Word (See Matthew 4:1-11; Ephesians 6:10-18; Hebrew 12:1-4) 

I Will Exercise My Right to God’s Forgiveness!