Restrain yourself before God as before men

Scrolling through my news feed once, I saw a hilarious gif. A little girl is playing on her phone when she hears her dad coming. She quickly rushes to the light, switches it off, jumps into bed and pretends to be asleep. Her father enters the room, switches on the light, lovingly kisses her forehead, and walks towards the door. He switches off the light, and while still in the room, he closes it, being hidden beside it in total darkness. Of course, the girl "wakes up", sneaks back towards the light and switches it on. Peek-a-boo, there is her father, watching her fall for his scheme. She pretends to sleepwalk, and the gif loops.

This gif, while funny, illustrates something very serious. We don't like being observed in sin. When we think no one is watching, we'll sin gladly. But when another person is around, suddenly we put on our "Sunday best". To give the example that inspired this article, my friend told me on Snapchat that she would flip me the bird, if her dad wasn't watching her. But even when her dad isn't watching, Jesus is.

Of course, flipping the bird is relatively tame. Not to justify sin, especially as God considers it all so abominable, the blood of Christ alone was sufficient to wash it from us, but let's be honest, there are worse things we can do. Drugs, sexual immorality, even violence. We show a lot more restraint in front of other people than we would ever show in front of God. Question: Why?

My own excuse is frankly rather pathetic: I can get away from them. He's always watching. Ok, so? If He's always watching, that should motivate me to show Him what He wants to see, not to act worse than I would if a fellow sinner was watching. God is holy. We should never sin in His presence, and we are always in His presence. Therefore, let us not sin. If you would not do a thing in front of your parents, you definitely should not do it in front of God (barring, of course, good things which are supposed to be private, such as taking a shower, or having legitimate marital relations). If it's evil, God is always watching, and so you should always show the same restraint you would around other people.