Planning to spend the day cooking at a homeless shelter is the other type. It appears on your schedule. You dress appropriately for a kitchen, including your shoes. You yield four valuable hours. On returning home, more time is spent cleaning the smell of cooked onions from your arms and hair. This is intentional, planned dedication of a good deed.
You will be rewarded for both types – the accidental and knowingly acting in goodwill.
The examples are written here to give you the idea of the two types. There are thousands of other kinds of good deeds but there are only two types.
In the same way there are two kinds of sins. Someone, slaloming between cars at high-speed, cuts you off by inches on the freeway. A curse word, that you would never say in any other circumstance, escapes your mouth.
As noted above, an example is required to show the point. Please remember there are over a thousand readers of these articles. If the sin example I pick is close to home, please forgive me for that is not why I chose it. One example is planning to move in with someone for whom you have a passion. Finances are considered along with closet space, daily routines, on which side of the bed each of you will sleep, and one may even consider what others might think.
Both types require repentance, but the second example demands action to plan a wedding and soon or to move out. A continuation of this sin while being aware is not God’s wish for you. That is continually sinning. That is knowingly sinning. God does not desire those who want a relationship with Him to continue to knowingly sin.
Repentance is so much more than the admission of sin; it is a joyous changing of the mind and heart to become a better person.
The examples are written here only to give you an idea of the types. There are hundreds of sins. Each of us knows what ours are. There are hundreds of good deeds. Each of knows what we can do for others. Though our minds conjure, it is our hearts decision which determines whether the actions are pleasing to God who made us in His own image.
“Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.” (2nd Timothy 2:22, NLT)
“Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself (or herself) from what is dishonorable, he (or she) will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the Master, ready for every good work.” (2nd Timothy 2:21 ESV)
It is impossible not to sin accidentally, but it is entirely possible to avoid knowingly sinning.
A Guy Named Bob 