3. Tolerance of Sin
Slide 3 of 10
In the name of tolerance and love, women, again and again, are willing to call sin by other names: weakness, personal truth, just the way I am. God does not take sin lightly because it separates us from him. Isaiah 59:2 says, “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” That should terrify us, that permitting sin to remain also prompts God’s revulsion. Yet Romans 5:8 reveals the cure: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
We can hate sin while loving people, and must rid ourselves of the idea that the two cannot coexist. In fact, hating the ways sin deceives and destroys others is a revolutionary act of love. We can hate murder, selfishness, racism, and brutality, while keeping in mind that if we are believers, we don’t get to pick what sins to hate by which are socially acceptable or convenient to dislike.
We hate all sin because God hates all sin. We don’t let it stick around because we don’t think we have time to deal with it, or because thinking about it makes us feel bad about who we are. We trust that we are who God says we are—righteous, beloved, children of the God of the universe, and we fight for the freedom that leads to abundant life.
Don’t let sin speak even a whisper of a lie. In Genesis 4:7 God says to Cain before he became humanity’s first murderer, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” When sin is seeking to devour us, we do not let it linger to see if it will only take a small bite; we rule over it with the strength of God at work in us.
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