Hating Sin & Loving Righteousness

In January of 1971, President Richard Nixon petitioned Congress to appropriate a great sum of money towards what would later become a bill known known as the National Cancer Act, and a war on cancer declared. Nixon noted, “I will also ask for an appropriation of an extra $100 million to launch an intensive campaign to find a cure for cancer, and I will ask later for whatever additional funds can effectively be used. The time has come in America when the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom and took man to the moon should be turned toward conquering this dread disease. Let us make a total national commitment to achieve this goal."

A war on cancer! A hatred even. Now, we would all agree that a hatred towards all those who have cancer would be an awful thing— but a hatred that acts aggressively towards the cancer in a person might be seen as a very noble and heroic thing. We might even say rationally, to fully love a person you must have their cancer— you cannot be indifferent to it..you cannot be neutral to it— you have to hate it in order to defeat it.

It reminds me of the man who asked prayer for his friend who was seeking to gain victory over alcohol.

Pray for my friend. He is an alcoholic. I’ve tried to get him to stop drinking— but he loves whiskey too much.

This morning, I want to talk about sin— hating it. Despising it. Loathing its eradication…seeking for its demise.

Psalm 119:113: “SAMECH. I hate vain thoughts: But thy law do I love.”

Psalm 119:163: “I hate and abhor lying: But thy law do I love.”

Psalm 139:21: “Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?”

Proverbs 8:13: “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: Pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, And the froward mouth, do I hate.”

Psalm 26:5: “I have hated the congregation of evil doers; And will not sit with the wicked.”

Psalm 101:3: “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.”

Psalm 119:128: “Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; And I hate every false way.”

I go further and say that there is a great need in the contemporary world for more Christian anger. We human beings compromise with sin in a way in which God never does. In the face of blatant evil we should be indignant not tolerant, angry, not apathetic. If God hates sin, His people should hate sin too. If evil arouses His anger, it should arouse ours too. What other reaction can wickedness be expected to provoke in those who love God? -John Stott

A Biblical Understanding of Sin

Rom. 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

In the New Testament sin is not merely an individual, privatized transgression of a moral standard (sins is typically used for specific transgressions). It is far more radical than that. Sin is a mistrustful state of being that moves us from communion to alienation by means of disobedience and pride. Scripture uses the term rebellion to designate this state of being. Rebellion focuses on a reaction to a prescribed code of conduct. Indeed, we have all rebelled against God’s holy law.

Even to the churches at Ephesus and Pergamos, the Lord condoned their hatred for evil ways;

Revelation 2:6: “But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”

Revelation 2:15: “So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.”

Hate is not the opposite of love.

We wrangle with phrases like, “Love the sinner but hate the sin.” Is that true? Is it biblical? Does hate belong in any measure in the human heart? Quite simply, yes.

Hatred is not love’s opposite. Indifference is love’s opposite. Hatred is a part of love and a sign of its vitality. Hatred is love in its ferocious and militant form. -Matt Walsh

Why should we hate sin?

its affect upon God

our relationship

our fellowship

John Stott

The essence of sin is we human beings substituting ourselves for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for us. We…put ourselves where only God deserves to be; God…puts himself where we deserve to be.

The Cross of Christ, InterVarsity Press

its effect upon others around us

Achan

its affect upon our own soul

Hating sin for what it does to you is not the primary reason to hate sin. Everyone hates drunkenness when they experience the hangover. To hate drunkenness because of what it does to you is not hating sin; it is hating the unpleasant consequence of that sin. The reason to hate drunkenness is because God hates it. All people are called to have a sober mind (1 Peter 1:13), therefore we are to avoid drunkenness. We cannot do this without understanding that sin is our enemy and is an offense against our righteous and holy God.

Proverbs 6:26: “For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: And the adulteress will hunt for the precious life.” The reason to hate adultery is because God hates it.

Proverbs 6:16-19: “These six things doth the Lord hate: Yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, Feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, And he that soweth discord among brethren.” The reason we ought to hate murder…pride…lying…wicked imaginations…things which are designed to divide brothers is because GOD HATES IT!

its affect upon the work of the church

ananias and Sapphira

its affect upon the world

The better we know God, the more we will hate our sin. The psalmist speaks of the “splendor” of God’s holiness (Psalm 29:2). The clearer that splendor is to us, the more we will eschew anything that threatens to obscure or distort that brilliance. The lover of light will naturally hate darkness. The closer we draw to God’s beauty, the uglier our own sin becomes to us, because imperfection, side by side with perfection, is always glaringly insufficient (Isaiah 6:5). To better know God, we must spend time in His Holy Word, the Bible (Psalm 119:11, 163). And we must commune with Him in prayer. It is impossible to pray in earnest and not feel convicted by our own sin. Prayer leads to a hatred of sin as it leads us into a closer relationship with God.

The better we understand the consequences of sin, the more we will hate sin in our own lives. Sin is what separates us from God. Sin enslaves us (John 8:34). Sin is what brought sickness, sorrow, shame, and death into the world (Genesis 2:17). Sin is the root cause of all war, fighting, pain, and injustice. Sin is why hell exists. When we consider the horrible effects of sin in the world at large, we are grieved to discover the same sin lurking in our own hearts. We hate that we contribute to the pain of the world.

The better we understand the source of sin, the more we will hate it in ourselves. Satan is the originator of sin (Ezekiel 28:15). Before salvation, we were children of the devil (John 8:44). As believers, we still face Satan’s temptations and struggle with the “old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires” (Ephesians 4:22). When we “gratify the desires of the sinful nature” (Romans 13:14), we are dabbling again in the uncleanness and corruption of the devil.

The more we love God, the more we will hate our sin. We are not our own, but we belong to God (1 Corinthians 6:20). The Lord has given us the very breath of life, and our sin grieves Him (Ephesians 4:30). Why would we tolerate that which grieves the One we love? A mother hates the sickness that incapacitates her child, and, if we really love the Lord, we will hate the sin that grieves Him.

The more clearly we see our potential, the more we will hate our sin. Think what the soul of man is made for! We are made to love, obey, and glorify our Maker. We are made to reason, invent, grow, and explore. What an excellent and high and holy work we are called to! Sin is what disables and perverts our God-given potential. Once we realize God’s original plan for us, it becomes natural to hate sin.

The more we care about our unsaved friends and family, the more we will hate our sin. When others see our good works, they glorify our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16). However, if what they see is our sin, God’s enemies will blaspheme (2 Samuel 12:14). As our personal sin is a detriment to our testimony, we hate it all the more. Our light should not be hidden under a bushel basket (Matthew 5:15). Light was meant to shine, and sin shrouds.

The better we understand the sacrifice of Christ, the more we will hate our sin. Jesus, the only innocent Man, shed His blood to save us from our sin. In a very real way, our sin caused His death. Our sin scourged Him, beat Him, mocked Him, and finally nailed Him to a cross. And “we turned our backs on him and looked the other way” (Isaiah 53:3, NLT). Once we understand the price Jesus paid for our salvation, we will love Him even more, and we will hate what caused His pain.

The more often we consider eternity, the more we will hate our sin. “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). No one will still love sin after he dies. The sooner we think of sin not as a pleasure but as the basis of the coming judgment, the sooner we will hate our own sin.

What do we do?

Romans 12:9: “Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.”

love the Righteousness One

Psalm 11:7: “For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; His countenance doth behold the upright.”

Psalm 146:8: “The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind: The Lord raiseth them that are bowed down: The Lord loveth the righteous:”

Psalm 40:7-8: “Then said I, Lo, I come: In the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: Yea, thy law is within my heart.”

These words were ultimately fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ:

Hebrews 10:7: “Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.”

Isaiah 6:1-6: “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: The whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:”

So if we want to develop truly Christian maturity, we need above all a fresh and true vision of Jesus Christ.

If only we could see Jesus in the fullness of who he is and what he has done! Why then surely we should see how worthy he is of our wholehearted allegiance, and faith, love and obedience would be drawn out from us and we would grow into maturity. Nothing is more important for mature Christian discipleship than a fresh, clear, true vision of the authentic Jesus.

For the discipleship principle is clear: the poorer our vision of Christ, the poorer out discipleship will be, whereas the richer our vision of Christ, the richer our discipleship will be. -John Stott

Psalm 119:163: “I hate and abhor lying: But thy law do I love.”

seek mercy through confession & repentance

Confession is not…

Confession is not telling God what he doesn’t know. Impossible. Confession is not complaining. If I merely recite my problems and rehash my woes, I’m whining. Confession is not blaming. Pointing fingers at others without pointing any at me feels good, but it doesn’t promote healing. Confession is so much more. Confession is a radical reliance on grace. A proclamation of our trust in God’s goodness. “What I did was bad,” we acknowledge, “but your grace is greater than my sin, so I confess it.”

Max Lucado, Grace: More than we Deserve, Greater than we Imagine.