Do You Hate?

Do you hate? How about this for my brothers and sisters -- as a Christian, do you hate?

You should.

Not just anything mind you, but you should hate your sin.

I remember the days before I came to know Jesus Christ. I practiced sin. I enjoyed sin. I was proud of my sin. I loved it. I loved frittering away my time every night engaging in mindless gaming until 2 in the morning. I enjoyed downloading and watching filth from the Internet. I practically worshiped the sports car I drove and selfishly spent way too much money on.

And deep inside I was hollow and empty and dead, unknowingly searching for satisfaction in all the wrong places. Nothing in this world can ever satisfy, and I had in my heart fear, anger, jealousy, worry, greed, lust, and a host of other feelings that are unpleasant and lead to ruin.

Then I came to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ. He completely transformed my heart -- and he did it in one night. Seriously. Once I came to realize the truth of the Word of God and begged him to save me, he did, and it was in such a powerful way there is no doubt that it was completely of God. Its like a switch was flipped in my heart and mind. One day I was a child of wrath enslaved to sin, and the next I was free and wanted nothing to do with it.

Don't get me wrong, the desire to follow Christ was there, but I have willfully sinned against God since that day also -- in some of the same ways as my old nature reveled in. But it was different. Instead of loving it, I hated it. I felt awful for slapping my Lord and Savior in the face and making a mockery of his sacrifice on the cross. Praise God for that kind of sorrow and hatred, for it was further evidence of the new life in my that is undeniable.

I wrote all that just to write this -- we are exhorted in scripture to test ourselves to see if we are in the faith. In other words, we should look at our own lives and figure out if we're doing a good job following Christ or not. One way to do that is to look at our attitude toward our willful sin. Do we pretend it doesn't exist? Do we rename it? Do we excuse it? Do we ignore it? Or, knowing what it cost to be free from it, do we absolutely hate it?

Grace and Peace friends