Clokes of Sin

"If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin." (John 15: 22)

The Greek word for "cloak" (or "cloke") signifies a pretext (alleged reason, pretended cause) or something done "under colour" (as though doing something else) or done "in pretence," or "ostensibly." For "cloak" other translations have either "excuse" or "pretext."

"The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid." (Hosea 13: 12)

But Ephraim's sin is not "hid" from Lord God, but is often "hid" from others. Men may hide their sins from others, but not from Lord God. Ephraim did what all hardened sinners do; he cloaked his sin. Sinners want to "sweep under the rug" their sins rather than confess and acknowledge them.

The sins of the religious hypocrites were not hid from the eye of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He saw through all the camaflouge and the "smokescreens" that these experts in hypocrisy and deceit used so effectively to hide their pretenses.

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation." (Matthew 23: 14)

These wicked unrepentant sinners, who deluded themselves that they were righteous, when they were not, were doing and thinking the way their unsaved forefathers did long before them. In Isaiah's day Lord God said:

"Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin." (Isaiah 30: 1)

It is a negative reaction and damning consequence of sin to attempt to ignore it, or to "gloss it over," or to "make light of it," certainly to deny it or attempt to hide it. Yet, it has been so ever since the first sin was committed by Adam and Eve.

"And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. " (Genesis 3: 7, 8)

"If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom." (Job 31: 33)

The clokes, and pretenses, and excuses that sinners use in a vain attempt to "cover over" or to "hide" their sins will all be one day "uncloaked" or "unmasked," everything being fully exposed. Fallen man's "fig leaves" will fade into nothingness and prove to be no coverings at all.

"For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known." (Luke 12: 2)

In that day, the Day of Judgment, those who have "made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves" (Isaiah 28: 15), will see that they have nothing but a "false front," their own "fig leaves" and "cloaks" not availing to conceal their guilt.

Those who "cover themselves with their works" (Isaiah 59: 5-7) are like they who attempt to cover them by excuses and by pretenses. Such coverings and excuses will be removed.

Jesus removed, by his preaching and interogatives to the hypocrites, the various disguises that they had used to mask their sins, their real motives. It was but a prelude to what is coming.

There are specific sins that are mentioned in scripture as being such as are often "cloaked." Peter spoke of the "cloke of maliciousness" (I Peter 2: 16) and Paul spoke of the "cloke of covetousness" (I Thessalonians 2: 5).

How often do men who are covetous, who work all the time for money, serving Mammon, to the neglect of God and family, justify themselves under the guise of "frugality" and "hard work"?

"I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah." (Psalm 32: 5)

"O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee." (Psalm 69: 5)

"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." (Proverbs 28: 13)

"Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?" (Isaiah 40: 27)

Friend, what about you? Are you pretending to be what you are not? Do you put on masks that make you out, in the eyes of others, to be better than you know you are? The words in the above texts show you the way out of this life of falsehood, and bring you into victory over sin, so that you can truly be what you now only pretend to be.