for the mutual edification of the Church
One could beg the question: if a particular hatred is not engrained in the soul of a Jesus-follower, do they have a heart after God’s own heart?
Let me explain. The Scriptures inform us that God abhors all wickedness and unrighteousness (Prov. 6:16-19, Ps. 5:5). God hates sin and here are just a few reasons why:
1. Sin is the antithesis of God’s holiness; the essence of His divine being and character. With sin, it is impossible to be set apart; one of two Greek meanings, Hagios, for holiness.
2. Sin is the separating force between God and His creation (Isa. 59:2), who after creating it deemed it ‘very good’ (Gen. 1:31). Anything that stands in the way of your relationship with God both grieves and angers Him.
3. Sin blinds and deceives God’s Imago Dei from receiving His freeing truth (2 Cor. 4:3-4).
Think about it. If we do not fully hate and despise sin, well, then we partially like it. If we do not fully reject sin in our lives, are we are not partially willing to not only invite but accept it into our lives?
This cannot be. Just like Paul saying that he desires to do what he knows he should not do (Rom. 7). There is absolutely no room for this soul-killing flirtation for a saint in Christ whose in the process of being sanctified. Is there such a process by which one becomes both clean and dirty simultaneously? Likewise, it is ridiculous to assert one becomes pure while fooling around with impurity.
There is a war being waged in every believer’s soul. One side is begging us to return to past bondage. To be entangled in sinful activity all over again (Gal. 5:1). We are being fired upon daily with arrows of evil (Eph. 6:16), persuading us to indulge in the pleasures of darkness. We must not succumb, nor give in to these ear-tickling temptations (2 Tim. 4:3).
For we are on the Lord’s side of battle. As soldiers, we shall not throw up our white flag or betray our King. Why? Because the deciding factor of this battle has already come to pass (John 16:33). The Cross at Calvary and the events that transpired shortly after involving a vacant tomb have announced the victor. It is finished (John 19:30).
When we invite unrepentant sin back in to our life and consider its wages of death (Rom. 6:23) once more, we have indeed trampled the Son of God (Heb. 10:29) beneath our feet along with His defeat of sin through resurrection. We have then lost sight of the victory already won. Indeed, we have then lost track of and mocked the Good News.
If sin is not entirely hated with every righteous indignant fiber of a believers being, then subtle shadows will increase, weeds of deceit will grow, and Christ’s power will be quenched.
I implore you brother + sister of the faith belonging to the Way (Acts 9:2), to hate sin. Reject it and resist it by gratifying the desires of the Spirit (Gal. 5:16) instead. And remember, be confident for you are more than a conqueror through Christ (Rom. 8). Plunge deeper into your love for Christ by clinging to and obeying His truth. May our falling in love with God, through the maturing knowledge of His grace, lead us past death and into life more abundant (John 10:10).
“So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
-Romans 7:21-25 NIV
