John Owen, in the 1600’s said; “I do not understand how a man can be a true believer, in whom sin is not the greatest burden, sorrow and trouble.”
J. C. Ryle, wrote about sin this way, “The Christianity which is from the Holy Spirit will always have a very deep view of the sinfulness of sin. It will not merely regard sin as a blemish and misfortune, which makes men and women objects of pity, and compassion. It will see in sin the abominable thing which God hates, the thing which makes people guilty and lost in his Maker’s sight, the thing which deserves God’s wrath and condemnation. It will look on sin as the cause of all sorrow and unhappiness, of strife and wars, of quarrels and contentions, of sickness and death – the curse which cursed God’s beautiful creation, the cursed thing which makes the whole earth groan and struggle in pain. Above all, it will see in sin the thing which will ruin us eternally, unless we can find a ransom, – lead us captive, except we can get its chains broken, – and destroy our happiness, both here and hereafter, except we fight against it, even unto death.”
The Bible tells us over and over how much God hates and abhors sin. “For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you.” (Psalm 5:4) And the Bible tells us that if we are true followers of His, we too should hate sin! “O you who love the LORD, hate evil!” (Psalm 97:10)
And yet, it seems so many people who claim to be Christians today find no problem with having a complete disregard for God and His Word. They seem to think there is nothing wrong with certain “little” sins and even some quite obvious sins. They claim “Well, everyone else is doing it…” The truth of the matter is – GOD HATES SIN! And God will deal harshly with those who continue to reject His Word and seem to have no sorrow or burden in their hearts over their own sinfulness.
The nation of Israel found out the hard way what God truly thinks about sin. And we too can either deal with our sin by confessing and forsaking it, or else find out the hard way ourselves. Sin is not a trivial matter that we should take lightly. One of the surest signs that we are true believers in Jesus Christ is our growing hatred and dislike of sin and our daily desire to become more and more like our Savior.
“Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.” (Proverbs 3:7)