We’ve been looking at how the world hates the Believer and the things of God. But did you know that there are things God hates? Proverbs 6:16-19 says, “There are six things the Lord hates—no, seven things he detests: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows discord in a family.” (NLT) There are more things listed throughout the Bible, such as Galatians 5:19-26 where there is a list of other things that God calls sin.
As I was working on my Bible Journaling, I made a mess on my hands and a little on my shirt, and the Holy Spirit whispered to me, “Sin is messy.” That is exactly what I had done, made a mess, and then I needed to clean it up. Sin is messy too.
Now, this sounds so negative, but there is a positive. We need to remember that these things listed are put in the Bible to bring us to the point of recognizing our sins. The Law condemns, it shows us ourselves in the raw, walking in sin. God hates things like pride, murder, lying, plotting to do evil, and feet that run to do wrong (which I see as things like adultery, practicing the dark arts – witchcraft, fortune telling, communicating with the dead, homosexuality, etc.), the Bible says that all these God hates and some, it says, are an abomination to Him.
All of us have sinned. Romans 3:23 tells us, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (KJV) I would venture to say that there is something on the list in our verses today that we have all done. Lying, for instance. When I was very little, if my Dad asked me if I did something I wasn’t supposed to, I would say “no.” Now, all very young kids do this. All of us have that natural tendency to lie. We need to be trained that lying is wrong, and God’s Word tells us that lying is a sin. Romans 6:23 tells us that there is a penalty for sin. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (KJV)
The positive side of all of this is that when we ask Jesus to come into our hearts and save us from our sins, God pours out grace upon us, and “cleans us up” on the inside. We have the Holy Spirit to help us. Galatians 5:22 lists the Fruit of the Spirit, those things that we are to go after and exhibit in our lives. The Apostle Paul tells the Galatians that they need to let the Holy Spirit guide them in everything; their actions, and attitudes, and to resist the sinful nature that is still in all of us. (Galatians 5:16) Even though we ask Jesus to be Lord of our lives, the enemy, Satan, tries his best to get us to get the upper hand in our daily walk.
This is a daily battle in our hearts. The Apostle Paul talked about this in Romans Chapter 7. In fact, in Romans 7:19 he talks about the battle in his own life. “For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.” (Romans 7:19-20 NASB 1995) He continues by talking about the war that wages inside each of us between good and evil. (Romans 7:23) It can be a constant battle for us, and if we are not careful, we can find ourselves trapped by the enemy.
Remember the mess I made in my Bible Journaling? I had to clean up that mess. But the mess we make when we sin cannot be only cleaned up by us. We need the help of God. Only by the blood of Jesus can our sinful, messy lives be cleaned. When we pray with a sincere heart and ask for His forgiveness, He hears and answers. He loves us and wants a relationship with us. Sin is messy and causes a broken relationship with Him – but God’s grace can restore us.
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