The Sin of Omission

When a parent tells their child that they aren’t allowed to play video games until their homework is done, but they do it anyway, this is a clear act of disobedience.  They did something they weren’t supposed to do. We’d call this a sin of commission.

However, if a parent tells their child to clean their room and they don’t, this is also an act of disobedience, but not because of something they’ve done, it has more to do with what they haven’t done. This is a sin of omission.

In the Bible, sins of omission are acts of disobedience just as serious as any committed. When God tells Christians to worship, speak, or act, and they refuse, they have disobeyed.

It says in James 4:17, “therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.”