"Wash My Feet, Lord"


I am a sinner, saved by grace, loving and loved by the Saviour, and striving to live the words of Scripture throughout my sanctification. I need to be convicted and changed more into the image of Christ. I desire to share with you, within this blog, all that I am daily learning. I want to serve Christ and become more and more like Him. I don’t want to live a legalistic life, but I do want to live a holy one. I want to see God receive the glory He deserves. I want to see the depth and richness of the Gospel come back to the Church. I want to see God’s people encouraging and building one another up in Christ. I want to encourage young people, and be encouraged by them, to live a set-apart life. I want to give up my life for the sake of the Kingdom and it’s King.
May you accept what is written here, if it truly honors the Lord, as coming from a heart that purely wants to honor Jesus Christ, my Savior. As He teaches me, rebukes me, corrects me, and trains me in righteousness, I hope to grow in my knowledge and love for Him. May everything that is said here bring Him glory. If I stray from the truths of Scriptures, please tell me. May my words be full of grace, as though seasoned with salt. May "the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.” (Ps. 19:14)

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Personal Holiness: Hating What is Evil


“It follows logically that the person who is seeking to demonstrate true “agape” love will also hate evil. Hating evil is the flip side of having love, which by definition, can’t be attracted to or “rejoice in unrighteousness: (1Corinthians 13:6). Since “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10), it follows that “the fear of the Lord is to hate evil” (Prov. 8:13). The believers will “abhor what is evil” (Rom. 12:9) because that’s what God does.

When we are faithful followers of Christ who seriously want to be known for our integrity we cannot accommodate any form or degree of evil. But that is often easier said than accomplished. The fight to avoid evil is part of the larger battle for personal holiness. Even Paul confessed, “I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate...For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish, But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man” (Rom. 7:14-15,19-22). It might be a struggle, but when a believer confronts sin and sometimes succumbs to it, his inner, godly self will, with God’s help, eventually disapprove and turn from the evil.

Conventional human wisdom says that the only way to hate evil is to be shocked by it. But the constant bombardment of our senses in today’s multimedia culture, with all its immorality and violence, makes it hard to be shocked by anything. Sadly, many believers amuse themselves with larger and more continual doses of worldly and ungodly diversions. They rationalize their behavior by believing that because they are Christians, exposure to sin and evil will not have a lasting effect on them. But in reality, such constant intake makes Christians immune to the shocking nature of evil, which of course lessens their resistance to evil and makes them more accommodating.

If we truly hate evil, however, we will want simply to avoid it in the first place. Consider the godly man in Psalm 1: “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night: (vv. 1-2) We can’t flirt with sin and evil and not be affected by them.”

-Pastor John MacArthur, “The Power of Integrity: Building a Life Without Compromise”

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