Paul admonished the saints at Ephesus to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness” (Ephesians 5:11).  This suggests to us that there are some things that we must avoid.  This week I want us to think about some of these things.

The things we will look at this week are sinful in nature, but before we look at them specifically, we must determine to have a genuine dislike for sin in general.  The Bible teaches us to hate sin.  

Romans 12:9 (ESV)
⁹  … Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

Psalm 97:10 (ESV)
¹⁰  O you who love the LORD, hate evil… 

Proverbs 8:13 (ESV)
¹³  The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. 

The danger of sin is that we can get used to it, which can lead us to grow comfortable with it.  Becoming comfortable with sin brings us one step closer to sinning ourselves.  But, even if we never commit the specific sin that we no longer abhor, we almost certainly will neglect to help the sinner by speaking out against it.

Enoch is a good example of what we should all do when given the opportunity.  The Bible says that he, “prophesied, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, ¹⁵  to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him’” (Jude 1:14-15).

Why did Enoch so boldly prophesy against ungodliness?  It was because it bothered him.  Even though he lived in a world dominated by sin, he never became comfortable with it, showing us that no matter how sinful our environment might be, we, too, can avoid becoming comfortable with sin.

What can help us to continue to abhor evil is to remember how terrible sin is.  There is no such thing as a harmless sin.  Yes, some sin has greater and more immediate consequences than others, but the ultimate consequence for all sin is the same—separation from God now (Isaiah 59:1-2), and everlasting destruction in eternity (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; Revelation 20:15).

Something else that should cause us to never grow comfortable with sin is to remember that it was the cause for our Savior dying on the cross.  Nothing accentuates the terribleness of sin more than the fact that the only way to defeat it was for God to sacrifice His one and only Son.   If that does not cause us to hate sin, nothing will.    

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.