C.H. Spurgeon | 1834 – 1892

Becoming a Christian changes things. It changes what you do, what you think, and how you feel about all kinds of things. Not only does it create new loves, but also, becoming a Christians means you gain new things to hate. One of those things is sin.

Why do Christians hate sin? Allow my friend Chuck to answer…

C.H. Spurgeon:

Let us hate the sin which brought such agony upon our beloved Lord. What an accursed thing is sin, which crucified the Lord Jesus! Do you laugh at it? Will you go and spend an evening to see a performance of it? Do you roll sin under your tongue as a sweet morsel, and then come to God’s house, on the Sunday morning, and think to worship him? Worship him? Worship him, with sin indulged in your heart? Worship him, with sin loved and pampered in your life? O sirs, if I had a dear brother who had been murdered, what would you think of me if I valued the knife which had been crimsoned with his blood? —if I made a friend of the murderer, and daily consorted with the assassin, who drove the dagger into my brother’s heart? Surely I, too, must be an accomplice in the crime! Sin murdered Christ; will you be a friend to it? Sin pierced the heart of the Incarnate God; can you love it? Oh, that there was an abyss as deep as Christ’s misery, that I might at once hurl this dagger of sin into its depths, where it might never be brought to light again! Begone, O sin! Thou art banished from the heart where Jesus reigns! Begone, for you have crucified my Lord, and made him cry, “Why have you forsaken me?” O my hearers, if you did but know yourselves, and know the love of Christ, you would each one vow that you would harbor sin no longer. You would be indignant at sin, and cry,

“The dearest idol I have known,
Whate’er that idol be,
Lord, I will tear it from its throne,
And worship only thee…”

(Taken from Spurgeon’s sermon, “Lama Sabachthani?“, which you can read here.)

In other words, “Hate what is evil; cling to what is good” (Romans 12:9). As we grow to love Christ more, may our hatred of sin grow as well. In becoming better lovers, may we too be excellent in our hatred.