Hating Sin: Act Decisively

2007

Erica: I was just wondering, what is “hating sin” supposed to look like? Because I know it’s not feelings, and I think I can be caught up in making myself feel like I hate sin. But what is it really supposed to look like? Is it something that you grow into the more you see?

Mark: Sometimes hating sin might involve emotion and just being hostile towards things you know are sin. But I can guarantee you from my own experience that hating sin is sometimes just saying, I know that this thing is sin. I may not even feel like it is, but I know it is, because I know what God said about it. Therefore, I choose to be repulsed by it. I choose to renounce it. I choose to declare to the heavens and the earth that I know this is sin. I agree with God, I confess it—that’s the Greek word. I call it what God calls it. I agree with God on the definition of sin. It’s not what I feel, it’s not what I think, it’s not what I want. God said this is sin, so I choose to be repulsed by it. I choose to renounce it, not just tolerate it, not even just brush it aside with “I know that is wrong.” But actually, violently take a sword of our own free will and cut off its head. And that doesn’t necessarily involve any emotion, and it may not always. In fact, I guarantee that with me it doesn’t always involve emotion. You just have to acquaint yourself with what God thinks about a topic, agree with Him on it, and then take serious action against it.

So, hating sin may not be an emotion. Seventy percent of the time I’d say that could be true, that it’s not an emotion at all. Maybe sometimes it will turn into an emotion, but then that same temptation or sin a month later doesn’t evoke that same emotion anymore. It doesn’t make any difference. God didn’t change His mind about it, which is really what we have to go back to. What does God think about it? We renounce and cut off the head, intentionally, willfully; we declare it and act on it aggressively, decisively. Because God said so. That’s what is has to look like. Anything extra is passing anyway, so it doesn’t make any difference whether you hate it emotionally or not. There will be a lot of temptations that are attractive. That’s the definition of a temptation, right? It wouldn’t be a temptation if it wasn’t attractive. So how are you going to hate that, if it’s something you want? It’s hard to hate something you want. But you can at least acknowledge that God’s ways are right and true, and what God wants is what God’s going to get.

What was wrong with that apple? It was good to look at, it was good to eat. Did Eve hate that apple? No, but God said...and that’s really all she needed to know, and all Adam needed to know. That’s all they needed to know to make a decisive choice about that temptation. They didn’t have to “hate” it just because God said that apple’s no good, leave it alone. “Oh, I hate that apple! I hate that apple! I hate that apple!” What good would that have done? None! So, the answer to your question is, find out what God thinks, and act decisively on that. And if you blow it, love much—and act decisively on it.

Brett: Isn’t that where the Ekklesia is also pretty powerful? I was thinking of sins that I’ve seen others hate, and it helps me hate it. I probably just would have allowed it, but I see them hate a dishonest comment they made and confess it and deal with it, and I’m convicted. I’m adjusted, I’m Changed by that in a real way, I think. I wouldn’t have had that advantage if someone else hadn’t had enough courage and love for God to be sensitive to that.

Mark: Yeah, and the flip side, too. Sometimes you’re with a bunch of people and a new believer or even your own child exhibits some sort of behavior, and you say, “That’s repulsive! Oh...I do that.” We have the proximity, and we have the intimacy and connectedness of relationship, and we have the obedience of being involved and engaged and being called alongside one another daily. It’s a command, “so that none are hardened and deceived.” Well, part of that process is seeing imaged and mirrored the life of Christ, the humility and repentance, but also seeing things that God intentionally puts in front of us as mirrors, to see things that we need to repent of, so that we feel a conviction. Like Nathan saying to David, “What would you do with a man like that?” And David said, “Oh, he should be killed!” “You are that man.” “Oh.”

That happens a lot of times when a parent sees his child being selfish or rebellious or modeling some behavior that is just dead wrong. They see how destructive it is. And they see in the little child’s eyes, “Daddy, I learned that from you.” “Oh, yeah.” You are that man! So again, the pillar and foundation of the truth in the Ekklesia means seeing someone repent of something that touches us, but it also means seeing someone who doesn’t repent of something yet, because they haven’t seen it yet. But we see it, and it raises that David-Nathan kind of energy, like, “What’s wrong? Oh...that’s me!” And God uses that too. And again, outside of Ekklesia that’s hard to come by, because you don’t really have the time and the patience. You’re too busy getting punched in the nose to follow your plan.