It’s been said that your character is what you are when no one is looking. However, it’s also been said that you can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool God any time. In other words, God is always looking. And so what kind of character does He see on display from you when no one is looking?

When I was a kid I got a snazzy new tape recorder one Christmas. In the days that followed, I had a blast with that thing. One of my favorite pastimes was covertly recording the conversations between my mom and dad. You just never knew when you’d catch some bit of gossip, some unguarded moment of candor, or some discussion that they’d rather have not had immortalized on cassette tape. I thought it was all funny, but they weren’t always amused when they heard the playback.

Years later, in a clear case of the apple falling in close proximity to the tree, my youngest son, Royce, received a Nintendo 3DS for Christmas and tried to secretly record some of my conversations. Fortunately for me, I caught him before I could utter any blackmail-worthy remarks. Unfortunately for me, God’s tape recorder is always running. Actually, He has a video machine, not a tape recorder.

It’s with this in mind that I’ll ask you if you’ve been committing some supposedly “secret” sin lately? If you have, just know that “secret” sin on earth is open scandal in heaven. You might be fooling some of the people all of the time or even all of the people some of the time, but you aren’t fooling God any time. Furthermore, the Bible still says, “…be sure that your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23). And if you don’t believe that, the only person you are fooling is yourself.