Everything I Hate
Posted by:
Bible Blogger on
August 16, 2007 at
8:40AM EST
I woke up this morning to a Smalltown Poets song going through my
head. The song is called "Everything I Hate" and it's based directly
on one of the more well known passages of scripture:
"I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks
be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the
law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin." -
Romans 7:15-25 (ESV)
I've heard this passage quoted and I find
that most times people talking about it fall into one of two camps.
The first is someone who honestly wants to overcome a sin they find
themselves repeating. The other is the group that really doesn't want
to stop sinning but they think if they bring up this passage it's like
a magical "get off my back" passage designed to keep accountability at
a distance.
We all have some sin in our lives and I would say
that all of us likely have one particular sin issue that's always
jumping up and biting us. It may be "mostly" under control (kind of
like being "mostly" pregnant) but now and then we'll be in a situation
where it pops up and we have to take all our strength to fight it off
with the Lord's help. The enemy is nothing is not tenacious when it
comes to trying to get us to stumble in our walk.
Thankfully,
like Paul says in the passage, we have Jesus to turn to in these
situations! He paid the price for our sins and He always provides us a
way of escape through Him for the sins we find ourselves fighting. We
cannot do it on our own no matter how hard we try.
The second
group is the one that concerns me this morning. It may be a pet peeve
of mine but it really bothers me when someone tries to take a passage
of scripture and use it to not just justify their sin but also continue
in that sin unabated. It doesn't matter what the sin is...sexual
addiction, gluttony, greed, etc...it's something that is separating you
from God and you don't try to stop it because you love it more than you
love the Lord.
Yes, you love that sin more than you love the
Lord. Otherwise, you'd have no problem laying it down and saying God
means more to you. That's the difference between the two groups I've
mentioned today. The first group doesn't want it because they love God
more than anything. If you're in the second group you do not love God
as much.
I know that's harsh but I can't think of another way to
say it. If you're out drinking until you're drunk every night and then
the next morning when someone confronts you on it say "well, what I
want to do I just don't do" and then go out again that night you're
putting alcohol ahead of God. You must look at it that way because at
the end of the day that's exactly what you're doing. Paul wasn't
talking about sinning willfully but rather sins that happen because
we're human and they occur before we realize it's happening.
If
you have a habitual sin that you just can't shake and you want to shake
it then seek help today. Talk to your pastor or a therapist or even a
rehab clinic if you're in that desperate a situation. Make the first
step to say "I don't want this sin in my life anymore and I need help
to beat it." The first help comes from God. The second should come
from your brothers and sisters in Christ rallying around you to help
you. (If you don't have a church family then start looking around for
one.)
It's time to stop loving the things that God hates.
