A Hatred of Sin

Jude 1:23 save others by a snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

My two year old Luke, loves chocolate, spaghetti, ketchup, syrup and just about anything else that can make a nasty stain on his clothes. There are times when I would swear that he is more intent on messing up his clothes than actually feeding himself, but his big tummy lets me know he is doing both quite well. One of Evie's least favorite things to do is laundry as it never seems to end with four kids. She does it everyday though. The reason why she launders away is because she cares enough for her children to know that they shouldn't be walking around with stains all over them. She respects them enough to keep them cleaned up and presentable.

Why is Jude so concerned with stains in the verse above? I believe that hating the garment stained by the flesh refers to a hatred of sin, its power and its effects or stains that it leaves on people, who God crested to bear His image. Believers are to absolutely have a severe passionate hatred of sin. God does. He should. Our sin taints his recreated glory in his kids and he doesn't like it one bit. Our goal as we extend mercy is to fearfully tell of the Works of Christ that delivered us from sin. We haven't earned it or deserved it, He just mercifully chose us. It seems like we have missed that a bit in our church culture. We should all ask the question do I love the Holiness of Christ to the extent that I hate sin as He does? If we are not careful we can invent a supposed middle ground, where we offer a synthetic Gospel that does not tear down idols or free people from sin, but instead offers a routine of modeling nice and pleasant behaviors. That type of Gospel is really no Gospel at all, but a man made attempt to justify one's self.

So where do you stand? Do you see the need for Christ's holiness to remove them for m you? Do you hate sin? Do you believe Jesus came to free people from sin, or enable them in it? Do you hate your own sin or do you just suppress it some and keep it close enough to pull out when no one is looking or you need immediate satisfaction?

Some of the hardest love to give is when we care enough about people to help them see the Light of Christ and their own sin and idols, and ask them to truly make a decision on which they will worship. It is exactly what Jesus did and what Jude is charging the first century believers to do. I pray that we will all be able to see God's holy hatred of sin and his Holy desire to free us from it by the blood of Christ.