Bible Study October 12, 2023
Proverbs 8:13 (ESV)
“The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.”
As a young child I remember my mother telling me “I should not use the word hate.” I have followed her directions for my lifetime. The word hate is not in my vocabulary yet maybe it should be. Ecclesiastes 7:9 in the Old Testament mentions keeping our tempers under control and all through the scriptures we see the words hate, anger, temper, and they go on.
Is it okay to hate? From a human standpoint we might consider some sin worse than another. As an example murder affects more than the murderer. But thinking a bad thought only affects the one doing the thinking. But God hates all sin He does not distinguish about one sin from the other. There is no good sin.
It seems today we have lost sight of what sin is as we easily accept what we want the scriptures to teach as acceptable. You may think they are acceptable but if so why does a person not speak out against wrongs. Wrong is a wrong today as it was yesterday. We can speak against sin with condemnation.
We need a renewed vision of who God is and the fact that we are sinners in His sight. For the Christ Follower our sin is forgiven and He sees us as righteous. But that does not mean we will live a perfect life. But it does say to us when we do wrong we seek His forgiveness, then forgive ourselves and remain in fellowship.
God loves us despite what we do it is His desire to forgive us and welcome us into the family of God. We cannot excuse our sin or tolerate it we must repent at the time we do wrong and strive to follow Christ every day.
Seek God and know you will find Him.
God Bless.
Asbury Chapel 