Temptation is biblically defined as to entice someone to sin or to be enticed with sin. Secret sin can be defined as any sin that you have hidden or kept from the knowledge of others. We have all experienced some form of temptation or secret sin, but when you’re called to Christ, you are also called to give these things up. There are many examples of this but the one that sticks out to me most is “The Rich Young Ruler”. He portrays this rich young man who walks up to Jesus and asks, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” Jesus begins breaking down the commandments to him. He then stated he kept all the commandments- this is the moment of his secret sin. We know that no one has kept all of the commandments except Jesus. Christ then asks the ruler to sell all of his possessions and follow him. Did he do it? No. But in the same way, Christ has called us to give up our secret sin. We cannot love God with all our hearts and yet keep our secret sin. Loving him totally means using our lives in ways to please him.
You must admit you have secret sin. Then you must deal with the sin. In your walk with Christ, accountability is so important. Accountability is having someone to hold you responsible and accountable for your actions. For example, I am engaged in college. My fiancé and I have a boundary right now to never be alone. We’ve placed brothers and sisters around us to hold us accountable. We know that when we are alone there’s a bigger temptation to sin. This can be with any sin that you struggle with. Find someone you can trust who will pray with you and help you to overcome your sin. We have to choose to love Christ over our sin. We need we give up our sin and follow him. Now this isn’t saying you will be perfect. We will not be perfect until Christ come back and give us our glorified bodies. But we shouldn’t use the fact that we aren’t perfect as an excuse to sin. In Genesis chapter 4, God told Cain to have control over his sin. In the same way, we should have control over our sin. Before we are even tempted with sin, we should already have it in our minds to say no to sin. Sometimes this does require losing friends and family members, but in the end, it will all be worth it.