Three planters sit on her patio. Two hold scarlet geraniums and one fragrant basil. She lifts a planter to make room for a bird bath and light hits the dark place beneath it revealing a swarm of black bugs.
Startled, she steps back, as the bugs flee the light to seek another dark place.
Sin and black bugs run from light. The bugs startled this soul for a moment but sin seeks to keep this soul from eternity with Jesus. That’s why we hate what Jesus hates – sin.
Jesus Hates Sin and We Hate Sin
“We’re not fighting flesh and blood. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12
Paul’s words describe what we face as God’s children. We’re not fighting what we can see but invisible powers of this dark world that seek to manipulate souls like puppets to keep them from Jesus.
So, how do we respond when facing sin? To the black bugs fleeing the light?
This is how to respond:
1. Pray for wisdom and discernment to identify sin. (Sometimes its hidden like the black bugs beneath the planter.)
2. Pray for protection so we don’t sin.
3. Don’t step back. Stand firm in obedience to Jesus.
Our obedience shows we hate what Jesus hates.
What Application Looks Like
This describes the mother of a born-again daughter:
Her mother is like a stage actress. She has an on-stage persona and an off-stage persona. To the audience she seeks to build a fan club and does it well.
She’s developed the talent to portray the character attributes that lead her fan club to see her as an upstanding, kind individual. She’s clever enough to minimize performance time so fans can’t see through her deception and has mastered “sound bites” to manipulate their perception.
Every actress needs a supporting cast. She carefully selects them because if they quit this would reflect badly on her. That’s why her cast consists of her husband who honors his marriage vows and her children.
Her supporting cast see the off-stage persona which is not the upstanding and kind individual on-stage. She uses them as “emotional punching bags.” They receive the dark presence in her heart—sin. And because it’s sin—nothing good comes from it.
This is not a mother bashing description. It exposes sin played out on stage with flesh and blood.
Stand firm in obedience to Jesus.
This is how the born-again daughter responds once she’s gained wisdom, discernment and protection from what it is—sin
She stands firm. She stands in obedience to Jesus and obeys the commandment to honor her mother. And she prays for her mother’s salvation.
Our obedience shows we hate what Jesus hates.
We Pray
“We’re not fighting flesh and blood. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12
Father, we thank You for the revelation in Your Word. There is no other way we could know that the evil we see in the natural is from a dark world we can’t see.
We can become angry, discouraged, and hopeless when we see sin around us. It’s easy to focus our hate on “flesh and blood” – people in our lives, governments, political parties and leaders.
Satan wants us to believe the sin and evil we see in the natural has nothing to do with his power of darkness. He takes special delight when God’s children respond to sin “in the flesh” and not in obedience to Jesus.
LORD, You have already defeated the power of darkness. We have one job to do and that is to be obedient and faithful until You bring us home.
That’s why we pray…
We pray for wisdom and discernment to identify sin.
We pray for protection so we don’t sin against “flesh and blood.”
We pray to stand firm in obedience to Jesus.
We pray to be faithful to Jesus until He brings us home.
In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
Question for Sisters
How will you stand firm in obedience to Jesus when facing sin?