Holy Hatred

Hate evil and love what is good; turn your courts into true halls of justice. Perhaps even yet the LORD God of Heaven’s Armies will have mercy on the remnant of his people.
—Amos 5:15

It wasn’t the first time David had traversed this rugged terrain. As a young man, he had been an outlaw in the wilderness, hunted by the paranoid King Saul. The prophet Samuel had anointed David and said he would be the next king of Israel. And after David killed the giant Goliath in the Valley of Elah, the praises of David were on the lips of the people.

Saul was paranoid and angry that someone would try to take his position. This drove David into exile, and he was running for his life.

But by this time, David was an older man. He was moving more slowly. And it wasn’t Saul who was hunting him but his own son Absalom, who wanted to put him to death.

David really needed to know that God was with him because the last time he was out in that wilderness, he didn’t have the stain of adultery and murder on his conscience.

Maybe you’re thinking, “Now, wait a second. I thought the Bible teaches that when God forgives, He forgets.” That is true. God Himself said, “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins” (Jeremiah 31:34 NLT).

The problem is that we don’t forget so easily. And there is someone else who doesn’t forget: the devil. The Bible refers to him as “the accuser of our brothers and sisters” (Revelation 12:10 NLT).

So yes, God forgives you, but the devil won’t let you forget as easily. He will go into the video player of your mind, so to speak, bring back that sin and remind you of it. He will continuously hit play, rewind, play, rewind.

It’s at times like these that we must go back to the cross and say, “Lord Jesus, You died for this sin. You shed your blood for it. And I know You have forgiven me. I stand on Your promise of forgiveness.”

We find that promise in 1 John 1:9: “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (NLT).

You may be standing on that promise now. And so you should. We like to cite promises like this one to bring comfort to our hearts. However, the promise is contingent on our meeting certain conditions. Yes, God says that He will forgive us. But this verse also says that we must confess our sins to Him.

Confessing our sin is more than mere acknowledgment. It is seeing our sin as God sees it. And how does God see sin? He hates it. In fact, the Bible tells us to “hate evil and love what is good” (Amos 5:15 NLT).

The question is this: When we acknowledge our sin, are we truly seeing it as God sees it, with a holy hatred?

If we have not confessed our sin, then we cannot stand on the promise of 1 John 1:9. So, let’s be sure that we have done it God’s way.