HOWTO: Learn to HATE Sin

[smeacham]

It is only by being spiritually converted that we are no longer obligated to sin (Romans 8:12-14).  After so many years of struggling against my own carnal mind, by God's grace, I was finally spiritually converted.  I can testify that this scripture is true in my own life.

Now, I want to continue becoming more like Him.  He hates sin!  How do I grow to hate sin as much as God does?

Please post here what YOU have learned about learning to hate sin.  I'd like to compile a list of Scripture, Ray's teachings, and personal testimonies on this, and not just for myself.  I believe it could benefit us all.

Thank you,
Steve

[OBrenda]

Good Subject,

Just my short direct answer without scriptures (others will bless you with them)
When I learned to hate Sin....is when God gives me eyes to see Sin not as a Rule,
but a cause of pain and suffering to others myself and most importantly to God.

If we understand we are One....what we do effects all.

Knowledge of this alone will not cause you to overcome the Sin, but it will cause you to hate it!

Hope to be helpful,
Brenda

[aqrinc]

Hi Steve,

Even shorter Romans Ch: 10 to 12, i just read them again ( eye opening)

george.

[Jody Edwards]

Steve,
Though I know the Lord still has a long way to go on removing all the sin in my life, over the last year or two I have noticed the Lord working on the sin that remains in me.  It hasn't been that He has been making me a stronger person, but that He has been causing my love for Him to soar.  So much so, that the temporary separation that I feel after I sin is almost unbearable.  I hate that separation.  It makes me feel so lost & alone.  I have imagined before that I have missed the 1st resurrection and am cast into the LOF where I would be separated from Him for an age.  The punishment that I would receive in the LOF would be nothing compared to the agony that I would feel caused by the separation from Him.  So I would say that for me, as my loves grows for the Lord, the more empowered I am to resist sinning.  Anyway, that's the way He is working on the sin in my life.
Jody Edwards   

[Samson]

Good Subject,

Just my short direct answer without scriptures (others will bless you with them)
When I learned to hate Sin....is when God gives me eyes to see Sin not as a Rule,
but a cause of pain and suffering to others myself and most importantly to God.

If we understand we are One....what we do effects all.

Knowledge of this alone will not cause you to overcome the Sin, but it will cause you to hate it!

Hope to be helpful,
Brenda

Brenda,

            A good reflection on your part, God is causing you to see that, what we do to others
            and towards God, Sins effects, are more important than the Sin itself, apparently an
            unselfish motive on your part, caused by God's Spirit and Direction, not of yourself.

                                           Kind Regards, Samson.

[Robin]

I think this is how I feel.

Matthew 23:24-26 (New International Version)
24You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

25"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.


My focus is not so much on what I do, but I hate what's on the inside of my cup. I hate the Ugly Carnal Beast and want it to die. Before God showed me the Beast my focus was on my deeds. It goes much deeper than that now.

[Vangie]

Rodger, I think I get what you're saying.  This is kind of personal, but I feel that as long as I'm human, I'll never truly be free from sin, because that's what makes this life what it is--it's a fleshly existence that gives us the platform to grow in the spirit and be a work in progress to be made into the image of our Savior.  I kind of don't feel like I'm on the same plane as Steve (Meacham), as I don't know that I can say I'm spiritually "converted"--at least not yet.  I do strive to be, but I can't say that I am, because I'm still a sinning machine--I still fight with my pride every day, and my patience is sorely lacking, and I catch myself judging, and gossiping, and not being as forgiving to those who hurt me or my feelings as I should, and those are just the ones nice enough to post in public.  I just think that if I say I'm spiritually converted, then I'm saying that somehow I'm not going to sin any more.  And Steve, I apologize if this seems to belittle or confront what you shared.  Please don't be offended; I'm hoping maybe I'm interpreting more than is necessary or meant by the term spiritually converted.  I really do HATE sin, but I still catch myself AFTER I sin--when I'm truly converted, I guess will God have me catch it before I do it?  Does this even make sense to you guys?

I wonder, was Paul spiritually converted as we're using the phrase here, even as he still battled with his carnality and flesh?  I'm pretty confident he felt like he was initially after his blinding experience, but as time went on and on, and he endured daily, did he still consider himself "converted?"  I bet Ray has addressed this somewhere, and if so I am sorry if I've wasted our time babbling (typing) before I researched into this more.  I just feel that I can't become complacent, but even so, I know that it's all up to Him where I stand, when I stand, and how straight when I do, because I sure do stumble and fall a bunch! 

Thanks for listening.  Can anyone else here can relate with what I'm trying (not very well) to communicate?  I hope I'm not pulling this conversation backwards, as Rodger's post was very enlightening and spiritual, as always.

Love in Christ,
Vangie

[aqrinc]

Hi Rodger,

That link to Paul's thorn was great, i have passed it up several times but did read now.
Very revealing about what he must have Learned to take such buffeting and count it as
nothing compared to the Glory that was awaiting. Also that Jesus Christ used such Tough
Love to keep him (Paul) humble.

With that in mind it is much easier to take the trials i face and learn to hate Sin; because
the pursuit of sin will keep me from that reward so much longer.

thanks, george.

[smeacham]

Personally, I wonder if part of the equation is to be beaten down so badly by sin that you can finally take no more?

OBrenda & Jody,
Thank you so much.  I hope that others can tell their perspectives as well.  I want to hate...hate sin, that is.  I want to know good and evil and finally choose good without hesitation.

George,
I read that section of Romans frequently, of late.  You're very wise.

M.G.,
Indeed, anytime I feel like I am standing on my own, God makes sure to teach me a lesson.  It seems that I can only stand while being supported by Him.  I want so badly to stop even trying!

Rodger,
Yes, God can and does use many evil things to keep us humble  Sin and sickness included.

Vangie,
I can never brag about being spiritually converted.  God gives and God takes away.  Nor can I be absolutely sure.  God only knows if I will stay the course, though I pray He makes me.  The only reason I even dare to say it now is because of a very noticeable change within me.  This makes me believe that, at least right now, I am no longer ruled by the law of sin and death, but by the law of the Spirit, as Ray has written about.  But, as you say, we'll never be completely free from it in this life.

Steve

[kweli]

When I learned to hate Sin....is when God gives me eyes to see Sin not as a Rule,
but a cause of pain and suffering to others myself and most importantly to God.

Very profound

Speaking of Job, I'm learning to be humble. I am subjected to GOD and HIS law. After all, HE is the ONE that stacks the deck.

2 Chronicles 7:14
if My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Zephaniah 2:3   
Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, who have wrought His judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD'S anger.

Psalm 149:4:
For the LORD taketh pleasure in His people; He will beautify the meek with salvation.

But more than just reading verses and knowing that there are benefits to humility, I have realised that I cannot (and probably shouldn't even attempt to) put myself in the same wavelength as the one who can answer these questions:

Job 38
4 Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand.
12 Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place,
17 Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.
19 What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside?
21 Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!
31 Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion?
33 Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God's dominion over the earth?
36 Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind?
39 Do you hunt the prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of the lions
40 when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in a thicket?
41 Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?

Job 39
26 Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom and spread his wings toward the south?
27 Does the eagle soar at your command and build his nest on high?

Job 40
8 Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?
9 Do you have an arm like God's, and can your voice thunder like his?

Job 41
11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.

All Glory to GOD
kweli