The Knowledge of Sin
Amos 6:3-6
You that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;


Only history can tell what sin is; nothing but Divine judgment can give you a definition of bad doing. We must watch the desolation if we would know the meaning of certain terms and the range of certain actions. We must study Divine judgment if we would know human sin. The difficulty of the teacher herein is that so many persons are unconscious of sin and are therefore mayhap the greater sinners. Some do not distinguish between crime and sin. They have not been criminals, and therefore they think they have not been sinners, — as if all the story of life did not lie in the disposition rather than in the action. The heart is the seat of evil. None knoweth the heart but God. The heart does not know itself; and if there were not a concurrent line called history, or providence, or judgment, we should never know the real state of the heart. We must go to the broader history, the larger experience of mankind, and find, not in it alone, but in it as interpreted by Divine providence, God's meaning of the term sin.

(Joseph Parker, D. D.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;

WEB: Those who put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;




Putting Away the Evil Day
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