SEPTEMBER 8, 2025 ~ FROM A PASTOR'S HEART

SEPTEMBER 8 DEVOTIONAL BIBLE READING: PSALM 97

We certainly live in a time when the world seems to define who God is, who Jesus is and what Christianity is. I hear all the time that if you are a Christian you must love all things. This sounds very pious and god-like, but it is neither. While it is true that "God is love" as the Scripture says, it is also true that God is holy and righteous. God's love does not extend to sin, while it does extend to the sinner. God never condones or accepts that which He has called evil. Paul tells us in Romans that we are to abhor that which is evil. In Proverbs we are told of seven things that God hates. The righteousness and holiness of God demand that He hate sin.

Sin has separated us from God...it is sin that caused Jesus to suffer the horror of the cross. Sin leads to our eternal damnation, it is because of God's love for us that He sent His Son to die for our sin. All that is evil and sinful stands against the holiness of God...it is an affront to Him...He calls it an abomination. The reality of evil and what it does to people demands that we stand against it, declaring our disdain for it, because God hates what sin is and what sin does. If we chose sin, we place ourselves at enmity with God and we make Him our enemy. He sent Jesus to reconcile we who have gone off in to sin, so that we might become the very children of God. To accept sin and to love sin is to reject Christ and to hate Christ. We cannot love and accept that which God hates and still live in the love of God.

Please share your thoughts.