Hating sin

The draw of the life of Jesus from with us with His desire to please our Father is to be our underlying motive. That enables us to face sin courageously, without fear or insecurity.

John
NZ

It grows with an understanding of what it does to destroy people and their relationship with God, naturally it starts with yourself, but eventually you hate it more when you see what it does to others

Keep it in your prayers and strive for it in your life; He will be there with you. Rejecting sin is unfortunately something that we all struggle with to some capacity - it's part of our broken state. It's a good thing that Jesus will wash us, white as snow

cedward1 said:

I was recently convicted through scripture of living a carnal, doubleminded Christian life. I professed Christianity, but continued in a life of sin. I thought I was saved, and I may have been, but only two weeks ago I submitted my life completely to Christ and asked Him to be my personal God.

However, I look back over my life and see a lot of sin that I willfully committed with the idea that I was saved so it didn't really matter. I know a true Christian should hate sin, and generally I dislike sinning. I fear sin because I know God hates it, but I don't know that I hate it like I should.

I might hate it, but with the conviction of my carnality came a lot of fear, and I feel that fear whenever I think of my sins. It's hard to separate other feelings from that fear.

Is hatred for sin something that comes all at once, or is it something that grows as we grow in faith?

Click to expand...

Hate sin, and have no fear.

While you are disapproving what is wrong, and unjust. You must be at peace, be kind, and patient. Do not let your discretion make you bitter, and worse judgmental or critical.

Peace be to all of you.

The Holy Spirit in you hates sin, He hates anything contrary to holiness, what we must do is submit to His leadings despite our sinful flesh striving for the opposite. Inwardly (in the spirit) we desire holiness, this is contrary to our sinful flesh which desires to do evil.

We must take up our cross and deny ourselves the fleshly passions of our sinful nature, we must put it to death by claiming the truth of the cross that our flesh was crucified with Christ and that we are indeed dead to sin in a spiritual (that must be made physical) sense and than we must trust in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ in our lives over every area we struggle.

Jesus rose again to new life, we also have this new life inside us, we can choose to feed and nurture this new life and live, or we can go back into death by feeding our fleshly passions and sinful desires.

Bringing our flesh into submission to Jesus Christ will be a life long endeavor, the ongoing aspect of our salvation called sanctification will be a constant struggle for holiness throughout our lives. Although it will be difficult sometimes, many battles can be won for purity as we learn more and more to submit to the Holy Spirit and deny ourselves. Looking to the reward that we can expect when we choose to live for Christ and not for lust:

The peace of God will be ours, and His presence will be with us as we choose to live in purity, as we seek to not grieve the Holy Spirit.

It is good to hate sin and to love God.

Is hatred for sin something that comes all at once, or is it something that grows as we grow in faith?

Click to expand...

How we "feel" about sin (ours or others) often changes. The truth of our sin does not change.

Paul writes in Romans chapter seven about his frustration trying to keep the law by the power of his flesh. In chapter eight we read a completely different attitude because he is describing walking by the Spirit. This "growth" could be called Christian maturity, as we learn to set aside the flesh (selfishness) and surrender ourselves to God for the work He would do in us.

As we grow in the image of Christ (the object of Christianity), we grow in truth. As we see ourselves in greater truth, we can say, like Paul, that in our flesh dwells no good thing. It is not that we grow in hatred of sin, but that we understand our complete saturation with sin makes us completely dependent upon Him who cleanses us from sin.

Like the tax collector, we can say, "God have mercy upon me, a sinner".

Becoming more and more like Jesus is a powerful self-experience that goes beyond someone with a highly intelligent mind, or with a gifted talent such as having a perfect singing voice. Jesus wanted to help the poor and sick and it is not enough to learn the Word of God and not spread the gospel to non-Christians around the world. There are people out there who need to be healed spiritually and financially where sickness and poverty are spiritual diseases that Satan want desperately to keep alive.:*:. Christianity is an open door to every non-Christian who hunger for God's miraculous power of peace and eternal love. As time moves forward, more and more problems/crises will be faced and the powerful faith of Jesus inside all of us believers will awaken to bring out the incredible supernatural fearlessness of Jesus to make non-Christians see that we are not weak but we are strong and victorious. When Jesus returns, the transformation will release the pain and stress from our old minds and bodies: our new glorious minds and bodies of Christ will experience ceaseless pure joy that goes beyond temporary sexual feelings of lust from annoying sin. You wonder why Jesus is super=confident without sin and what is meant to be brother of Christ if you are male, or sister of Christ if you are female. The most advanced community in the universe is God's kingdom and I believe the materials used to build his kingdom is light years advanced where global warming is non-existent in heaven. Praise our Lord Jesus as he protects us from the dangers of sin.

jehoiakim said:

It grows with an understanding of what it does to destroy people and their relationship with God, naturally it starts with yourself, but eventually you hate it more when you see what it does to others

Click to expand...

Well said.

cedward1 said:

So I shouldn't worry if I don't automatically feel a deep hatred for all sin?

Click to expand...

Our feelings change, they are not a reliable guide when it comes to our faith and security in Christ. It is much safer ground to focus on who our God is and who He is changing us to be. God hates sin and He loves us, but when we look at ourselves, sometimes we hate sin and love God, other times we will despise holiness and turn instantly to sin.

Paul said:

"I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out." (Romans 7:18)

Nothing good lives in our flesh, so if we try and cultivate good feelings in our flesh and rely on them for assurance of our salvation we are being deceived.

[The flesh (our sinful nature) is evil and not trustworthy, we are to make no provision for it, or it will instantly demand gratification.]

Where then does assurance come from? His word and His indwelling Spirit:

"Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God" (1 John 1:12)

"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." (1 John 5:13)

"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life." (John 5:24)

"The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children." (Romans 8:16)

"because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." (Romans 8:14)

As you trust in God's love and His holiness you will learn to hate sin as He does, the flesh must be put under, the Lord Jesus is you Master now, not sin.

The longing for holiness you feel inside IS the witness of the Holy Spirit, you desire to do good, but your flesh desires evil, you are caught in the midst of this struggle as all Christians are...again here is what Paul said:

"What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24)

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:1,2)

Seek to please the Lord and make your body and thoughts submit to His holiness. The Lord is able to set you free from ALL sin, in different ways we all must take up our cross and follow Christ, whatever strongholds are in your life, they can be conquered through Jesus Christ by the Law of the Spirit of Life. Trust His word, trust His love, trust His salvation, do not trust your flesh.

Blessings.

Dear cedward1. Jesus told us to love, not hate the sinner. Hate is very Un-Christian, and makes everything worse. Christians should always try and help the sinner to overcome the sin,and what is Sin? Everything we say or do, or even advocote, which is not from selfless Love or Compassion, is definitely sin. Christians should always try to represent God or Jesus, and God knows that it is not easy for most of us. But Jesus will give us His Love and Joy, and the Holy Spirit will give us His Love, too. Jesus told us to ask and we will be given, God will see what we are trying to do, and God will approve and bless us. We will stumble and fail often, but we will get up and start again and again, and God will forgive us as we will forgive each other, friend or not friend. God is Love, cedward, and God wants loving children/sons and daughters. We have much time to become better and better, but we will have to want to love, as God wants us to. Love is very strong and catching, and many Christian-men and Christian-women worldwide, are proof of this wonderful fact. May I repeat again: to sin is to act, or speak, or treat our neighbour without love/kindness, helping hands and hearts, being envious and ignoring each other, rather than being good neighbours and treating them as we would love to be treated. It can be done and once started, we will find that life will be as Jesus promised us: " life abundant." I say this with love. Greetings from Emmy, sister in Christ.

The Bible has a lot to say about light and darkness. God is light and in Him is no darkness (1 John 1:5). Also 1 Peter 2:9 "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."

If we know that God is light and anything not of Him is darkness, then sin of course belongs to the kingdom of darkness. The more you 'hang out' (for lack of better terms at the moment) with God, the more you will get used to the light and will want to stay away from darkness. 'Darkness' (or sin) is not for the believer, it's simply not supposed to be a part of us. Like I said, the more you step into the light of His Word and presence, He'll turn you into what He wants you to be - a shining light for Him!

Hating sin is completely appropriate for the believer. God hates sin too!

"There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers." -Proverbs 6:16-19