Our dealing with sins is based only on the consciousness while in fellowship with God, not on all the facts of all the sins we have committed. Therefore, the realm of the basis is much smaller than the realm of the object. For example: if we have actually committed one hundred sins, but when we approach God we remember only ten sins while in fellowship with Him, we should deal with those ten sins of which we are conscious. If we are aware of only ten percent, we deal with ten percent; if we are aware of twenty percent, we deal with twenty percent. In other words we deal only with the number of sins which we remember. The number of sins we recognize are the ones with which we are obliged to deal. This is the principle of remembering as stated in Matthew 5, and this is our principle in dealing with sins. We can leave undealt with for the time being the sins of which we are not aware, until such time as we do become aware of them in fellowship with God. Practically speaking, dealing with sins is not an ordinance of the law, but a requirement of fellowship.

How is it that we can leave those unconscious sins undealt with for the time being? We can do so because unconscious sins do not affect our fellowship with God. If a person is guilty of an unrighteous act, others may become conscious of his wrong doing, but he himself may not be aware of it. His conscience is still blameless. For this reason he can still pray and have fellowship with the Lord, and he can serve God and testify for God as usual; his spiritual life and service remain unaffected. But whenever he is aware of this sin and still does not deal with it, he has a guilty conscience; his fellowship with the Lord is hindered, and his spiritual life and service are not normal. According to Matthew 5, if one remembers something which needs to be dealt with and neglects to deal with it, his fellowship with God is immediately interrupted. He must deal with it quickly until it is completely cleared up; then he can have fellowship once more with God. First John 1:7 states the same fact. If one recognizes his sin while in the light of fellowship and does not deal with it, his fellowship is immediately hindered. Therefore, if we are not conscious of the sins which we have committed, we do not need to deal with them. If, however, we are aware of them, we should deal with them quickly; otherwise, our conscience will accuse us, our faith will become shipwrecked, and all spiritual things will thereby leak out (1 Tim. 1:19).

Hence, when we help others to deal with sins, we do not ask them to deal with their unconscious sins, but with their conscious sins. When one becomes aware of his sin and either neglects or refuses to deal with it, then we can help him and lead him to deal with it.

The same is true when we examine our experience in dealing with sins. We do not ask how many sins we have committed which we have not dealt with, but how many conscious sins we have not dealt with. We can leave our unconscious sins undealt with for the time being, but the conscious ones should be dealt with speedily. Up to the present time there are many brothers and sisters who have not come to absolute obedience with regard to the feelings they have while in fellowship with God. For example, someone may have committed one hundred unrighteous deeds and has become aware of twenty of them while in fellowship with God, but in practice he deals with only five. A problem, therefore, exists in his fellowship with the Lord. His spirit is not strong, and his prayer cannot be released. His condition before the Lord is greatly damaged.

We see, therefore, that the consciousness of fellowship upon which we base our dealing with sins is not absolute, but differs according to the degree of depth of fellowship the individual has with the Lord. The same unrighteous deed may be a sin in the eyes of one person, whereas in the eyes of another it is not a sin. This is because the degree of fellowship in the one is deeper than in the other; so the consciousness of fellowship of one is keener than that of the other. For instance, one may tell a lie in a very evident manner, and everyone knows that it is a sin; others may lie by telling the truth. To the average individual the latter may not be sin, but those in deep fellowship with the Lord know that this also is a lie and must be dealt with.

For example, Brother A is entering the room of Brother B. Brother B sees him coming and hurriedly arranges his bed. Brother B comes later to Brother A in order to deal with this situation, saying: “Brother, when I saw that you were coming into my room I arranged my bed; this is pretension.” By arranging his bed in such a way he felt that he was pretending; hence, he had sinned and wished to clear it up. Others who are not quite so sensitive would consider this act as a polite and necessary gesture. This is because the degree of fellowship differs, and so also the consciousness differs.

Furthermore, the feeling in the same individual may also vary according to the difference in his stage and depth of fellowship. Should someone have told him about a certain sin two years ago, he would not have admitted it, but his fellowship during the past two years has deepened, and he has become more sensitive. No longer does he wait for others to condemn him; within himself he recognizes the sin and realizes that it must be dealt with.

Dealing with sins, therefore, is based on the consciousness we have while in fellowship with the Lord, and the consciousness we have while in fellowship with the Lord in turn is based on the depth of this fellowship. If the degree of our fellowship is deep, our consciousness will be keen and strong. If, on the other hand, the degree of our fellowship is shallow, our consciousness will be dull and weak. It is similar to the air in the room, which at first glance seems quite clean and free from dust. The fact is that the light is not strong enough, so that our vision is not able to pierce the atmosphere and detect the dust. When the sunlight enters the room, under such strong illumination, we may observe many dust particles in the air. In like manner, we are guilty of many unrighteous and unlawful deeds, among which may be the coarser and more serious sins, which are easily recognized; but there are many finer or less serious sins which are not so easily discerned. Not until our fellowship in life deepens will we be enabled to recognize these and deal with them. Hence, we should never measure others by the yardstick of our own consciousness, nor should we accept the consciousness of others as a yardstick by which to measure ourselves. Everyone should learn to deal with sins only according to his own consciousness at the time he is in fellowship with the Lord.

We should realize at the same time that although we deal with our conscious sins, this by no means indicates that all our sins have been completely dealt with, for there are still many facts of sins of which we are not conscious. If we wish, therefore, to deal with our sins thoroughly, we should strengthen our fellowship with God. As this fellowship is strengthened, our consciousness concerning sin will become correspondingly broadened, and our dealing with sins more thorough.

How should we strengthen our fellowship? First, we should enlarge the sphere of our fellowship. The extent of our consciousness is the extent of our fellowship. In fellowship we unfold everything before the Lord. When we do this, we have a consciousness concerning everything and can thereby deal with everything. At the same time, as we deal with our conscious sin, our fellowship will naturally increase. Then, as our fellowship increases, more sins will be revealed, and we will increase our dealings. The more we deal with sins and the more our fellowship increases, the broader the area of our consciousness becomes, and the more our dealings increase. Thus, our dealings cover every aspect.

Secondly, we should deepen the degree of our fellowship. As the area of our fellowship broadens, we deal with every sin, but these dealings are not thorough. It is for this reason that our fellowship with the Lord needs to be deepened. As our fellowship is deepened, our consciousness is correspondingly deepened. Realizing that our former dealings were not sufficiently thorough, we deal again. More dealing brings in deeper fellowship, and as the fellowship is deepened, we experience more dealings. Then not only are all the sins dealt with which need to be dealt with, but they are dealt with in a very thorough manner.
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