“I can’t believe he just did that, but I’ll give him ten bucks to do it again!”
“That was someone else, but I was in the background cheering him on!”
“Of course it’s wrong, but really funny!”
Raise your hand if one or more of those statements has come out of your mouth. Raise another hand if you have said them multiple times to multiple people. Raise another hand if you have said them in relation to something that God would consider sinful. Did you run out of hands? So did I.
When we look in the Bible, we consider statements such as, “thou shalt not” to be iron-clad (as we should). As Christians, we abhor foul language, adultery, fornication, lying, and other things that are mentioned as being sinful. Romans 1:29-31 lists ten different sins and thirteen different types of people that are mentioned as “deserving of death,” and while we would whole-heartedly agree with Paul in the judgment cast on them, we would almost never look at the last half of verse 32, which says, “not only do the same, but also approve of them that practice them.” Paul is advising us not only to watch our actions, but watch our mindsets toward others that are in the world.
Proverbs 8:13 states: “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.” When we couple that passage with Ecclesiastes 12:13 that says, “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man”, we know exactly what our attitude should be towards sin – hatred. Encouraging on the sin, and watching with pleasure only puts us in the same league with the ones actually doing the sin. Called out of the world, dead to sin, putting on righteousness, raised a new man, and yet still approving of things that Jesus died to free us from. “For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14). It may be as small as turning the radio when that song comes on, or even forsaking all our friends to be the one person that will stand up for righteousness, but we must take the extra step to purge ourselves from the sin that is present all around us.
Change like this starts in the heart. Developing a godly mindset, and committing yourself to love the things God loves, and hating the things God hates are necessary to be children of God. We must remember that there is no in-between with God and Satan; we either hate the one and love the other, or love the one and hate the other (Matt.6:24). Remember that time you watched in amusement as your friend stole the snickers from the grocery store? You will give an account for your actions to God (Romans 14:12), and will have to explain why you sat and watched him sin. Remember the time that you laughed as your neighbor tried to rationalize his fourth divorce? Same thing.
Last modified: January 22, 2019