When you know, you know. 1 Timothy 5:24-25

24 The sins of some are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them. 25 In the same way, good deeds are obvious, and even those that are not obvious cannot remain hidden forever.

Some day, every thought, every action, every private moment, every word, every did, every misdeed will be made public.

What a scary thought. And thankfully, not true.

In my imagination, I see a day in eternity when all that we have ever done will be played on the largest video wall you could possibly imagine so that the entire body of Christ, the church, assembled in heaven, will watch and praise the God of the universe for you and me. I don't think that's a very good idea. To be honest, the moments from my life when I am behaving in a God-honouring manner aren't nearly as frequent as I wish they were. For the vast majority of us, a long life could probably be watched in a matter of minutes. But that's okay - we won't be in heaven because of what we have done, but because of what Jesus has done. He's the one that deserves and gets the glory.

Look at what Paul is saying here:

Some sins are obvious in the moment; others become apparent later.

Some good deeds are obvious in the moment; others become apparent later.

On one hand, you can run, but you can't hide - at least, not for long - whether what you're doing is on the positive or negative side of the ledger. "You may be sure that your sin will find you out" (Numbers 32:23).

Of course, more things are obvious to those who know us best, and no one knows us better than the Lord.

Like many (if not all) of us who consider ourselves believers, there have been times when I've thought, "I sure hope the Lord isn't watching right now!" I know he's always watching, and aware of what we're up to. And even worse (or better), He knows the motives behind what we are doing. He knows why we're doing what we're doing, and it's seldom something we'd like up on the big screen.

God knows everything there is to know about you and me. And he loves us anyway. Let that sink in.

God knows everything there is to know about you and me. And here's a really key thing to add: Even when our behaviour and attitude and words and thoughts aren't very loving, if we love him, he knows about it. Even when our love for him isn't obvious, he knows if we love him, and he loves us! "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8).

That is amazing. Why would he do that? I guess the real question is, "Why wouldn't he have given up on us a very long time ago?"

And I guess the answer is because love is at the very core of his nature. And so is justice. So he couldn't just wink at our indiscretions, and say, "No big deal! No problem!" Our sin requires justice, and Jesus provided it at the cross, and demonstrated his power over sin through the empty tomb.

Thank you, Jesus!