When you have something to hide you do things to conceal the truth.  The funny thing is that when you do these things you are unknowingly revealing that you have something to hide.  You are “giving away” your guilt.   You can’t hide from God.  So, today we are going to examine the Bible for the things people typically do when they have something to hide.  The purpose of this study is not to make you a better actor; rather the purpose is to expose you if you are hiding something.

In Gen 3:8, Adam and Eve hid from the presence of the Lord.  It’s funny that they thought they could hide their nakedness from God [Heb 4:13].  When a person wants to sin and not get caught he hides so he can’t be seen.  He closes the drapes, goes out of town, hides his phone records, hides the credit card statement and so forth.  Oftentimes, when a person gets caught in sin, others close to him remark that they had their suspicions.  The reason is that they notice your peculiar behavior.  You come home late, make up excuses, don’t answer your phone, or whatever.

When you have something to hide:

You’re afraid you’ll get caught – Gen 3:10.  When the Lord found Adam and Eve, he admitted that they had hid because they were afraid.  When you’re doing something wrong, you’re afraid, particularly around godly Christians in a good church.  You have something to hide.  And some men can “read” your fear; it is your fear that gives you away.  You are stiff and careful in your conversations and you don’t want your mouth to divulge your sin (out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh).  So, you measure every word like a politician to be sure it’s safe.  In Lk 20:5-7 the Pharisees couldn’t think of a safe way to answer the Lord without revealing that they were the trees, who couldn’t bring forth good fruit [Lk 3:9].

You become a hypocrite – Gen 3:7.  As Adam and Eve wore fig leaves to hide their nakedness, so men wear masks to hide their sin.  They pretend to be something they are not out of fear of being exposed for who they really are.  They are too careful to maintain their appearance around other people.  Thus, they are like the Pharisees, whited sepulchers full of dead men’s bones.  You know in your heart that you are not what you pretend to be and yet you keep up the front.  Many times spiritual people can smell something rotten underneath your outward shell just like Jesus could see right through the Pharisees’ hypocrisy.  You would be better off being who you really are and taking your place with the publicans and harlots.  That way Jesus can transform you into what he wants you to be and you won’t have to hide anymore.

You lie to hide the truth – Prov 10:18.  People lie all the time to hide the truth.  The lie is used to cover what you are hiding.  More times than not, though, your lie gets exposed, and then the fact that you have been hiding something comes out.  Even though some people are better liars than others, eventually, the truth comes out [Prov 12:19].  And many times you are the one who exposes your own lie.  You do it the next time you lie about what you’re hiding.  Your “facts” just don’t add up.  On another note, often times young people lie to hide their insecurity.  You know what that is?  It’s pride!!  You would be way better off to humble yourself and tell the truth; then God could do something to help you.

You resort to criticizing others – Matt 7:1-5.  You judge other people and run other people down with your mouth or in your mind.  You pick on the mote in their eye to hide the beam in your eye.  This way you take the attention off you and the thing you’re hiding.  And you turn the attention on to someone else.  But when you criticize others, you are just proclaiming to the observant listener what your problem is [Rom 2:1].  The truth is that people always find fault with other people in the area where they are having trouble.  For example, the Pharisees jumped Jesus out about the Sabbath.  And yet they got caught red handed after the triumphal entry buying and selling in the temple on the Sabbath.

You get angry when people call you on what you’re hiding – Matt 26:73-74.  When Peter was accused of being a follower of Jesus he denied it.  Then, when he was pressed further, he cursed, and swore that he didn’t know the Lord.  Truly, people get angry about a lot of different things.  However, when you’re hiding something and you get pressed, you’re going to get mad.  It is an unwritten axiom that the more vocally and defiantly a man denies an accusation the more likely he is guilty.  He uses his anger to cover his transgression.  You would be way better off just admitting your guilt than to put on such a show.  It’s easier to be forgiven by people who aren’t mad at you for blowing up on them and adamantly denying the truth.

Conclusion: you may not be hiding as well as you think you are.  Truth be known, you are giving yourself away by the things you’re doing and saying.  On top of that, not only are you wrong for hiding your sin, but you are compounding the problem by hiding behind all these other things.  You are far better off to quit the sin and come clean.  Listen, the longer you play this out, the worse it’s going to get and the more people, potentially, you will hurt.  And the one who will get hurt the worst is you.