Sergeant Shultz

Recently I have watched a few episodes of the old television show Hogan’s Heroes. Quite often, the bumbling German soldier, Sergeant Shultz, would catch Hogan and his buddies breaking the rules at the prison camp where they were held captive. Whenever Shultz threatened to go to his superiors to report the infraction, Hogan would always find some clever way to suggest that the action would backfire on Shultz and make life harder for him. After taking a moment to think about it, Shultz would deliver his classic line—“I know nothing!”

Too often we pull a “Schultz” by pretending we don’t know of any wrong-doing in our own lives. We think that if we ignore the sin, we will somehow be better off.

That’s not the way things work with God. He would rather have us tell him what we know about ourselves, even if it makes us look bad.

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”—1 John 1:8-9.