Sunday, March 15, 2009

Hatred of Sin

Ps. 5:4 For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness,
Nor shall evil dwell with You.
5 The boastful shall not stand in Your sight;
You hate all workers of iniquity.
6 You shall destroy those who speak falsehood;
The LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

Ps. 97:10 Let those who love the LORD hate evil,
for he guards the lives of his faithful ones
and delivers them from the hand of the wicked

Prov. 8:13 To fear the LORD is to hate evil;
I hate pride and arrogance,
evil behavior and perverse speech.

Romans 12:9 Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

One of the Religious Affection I have been thinking about is hatred of sin. It is interesting that an "Affection" can be hatred of something. I fear that my heart has been seared, my intake of earthly junk is so great and the time following after earthly pleasure and a sinful nature has made my true hatred of sin very small.

In these verses God is telling us what He thinks about evil and sin. His eyes are too pure to look on sin, and He can not tolerate wrong Hab. 1:13. Yet, my hatred of sin is shown by my misguided affections.

How am I to "love not the world, neither the things that are in the world", 1 John 2:15 if I don't hate what is in the world and don't hate sin?

God alone can change my affections and the things I hate. God alone grants true repentance toward true joy and God alone can make my heart sensitive to sin.

I think about something sensitive to pain, like when you rip off your fingernail and all you have left is the quick. You have no idea how many times everyday your finger is bumped, until you do something like that, but then even a feather hurts.

The only way our hearts can get back to that sin sensitive place is by God showing us our sin, confessing and repenting of that sin on an ongoing basis and for us to turn from that sin to true joy. I am seeing that this is not a short process and that it takes God working in my heart to even start it.

If He can't look at evil I need Christ's righteousness to cover my sin so my Heavenly Father can see me and protect and guide me.

There are not many things I can control in this life, but in the areas that I have control, namely my affections, I need to be faithful to His calling.

Oh Lord, change my affections and give me a hatred of sin. I am inclined to want the things of this world over You, but You can give me a new perspective of what holiness looks like and even a hatred of sin. I want to be one of Your "faithful ones" so You will guard me and protect me from the wicked one. You alone can bring about this change of affections, please do that in me.

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