Secret Faults: Sin's Subtle Disguise in the Sanctified Life

"Who can understand his errors? Cleanse Thou me from secret faults." — Psalm 19:12

Sin possesses a remarkable tenacity and cunning. The vices that plagued us before conversion do not vanish; they merely transform. In cultured and sanctified circles, they reappear subtly disguised, stripped of their gross offensive violence but retaining their essential viciousness.

Consider the believer's struggle: anger, covetousness, indulgence, pride, self-will, and vanity continually reassert themselves within the Christian soul. They arrive not as crimson transgressions but as "faint and inoffensive sins," so refined they escape the notice of those who know us best. Yet the true disciple recognizes these enemies through their profoundest disguises—they remain the same deadly vices that all men loathe when seen naked.

The desires and weaknesses of the natural life, though greatly diminished in the spiritual life, have lost none of their lethal nature. Their "capacious jaws seem no longer fringed with teeth," yet they remain monsters of the same breed. We must show them no mercy.

This is why the psalmist cries for divine cleansing—not merely from gross transgression but from nisthrot (hidden things), those secret faults invisible to human scrutiny. The path to genuine holiness demands relentless self-knowledge. As Socrates recognized, self-knowledge is the true starting-place of wisdom. Without it, we become blind to our condition and pay a serious penalty.