Psalm 15:1,4a Who may worship in your sanctuary, LORD? Who may
enter your presence on your holy hill? Those who despise persistent sinners……
How do you feel about
those who blatantly sin against the Lord and don’t seem to care? Do they bother you at all? We are told to
love the sinner and hate the sin. The Psalmist doesn’t take that approach. He
suggests that we should despise those who persistently sin. Why? I believe that
one of the reasons is that sin is an abomination and insult to God. It is
everything that God isn’t and it’s the reason why hell exists. God loves us and
doesn’t want any of us to go to hell, but He knows we must and will if we
insist on living in sin. It grieves His heart. It is why He had to go to the
cross. We should, no, we must, have a hatred for sin wherever it is found. We
must not tolerate it in our lives or in the lives of others.
Food for thought: When
was the last time you watched someone on TV say or do things that were
obviously sinful in nature and stopped to pray for them? They are people in need of a Savior. Instead of lavishing praise on them, we
should instead lavish prayer on them. We
tend to glorify sin and the sinner, instead of beseeching the Lord on their
behalf.
Those who would worship
the Lord must honor the faithful followers of the Lord. Instead of being
critical and judgmental of other believers, we must uphold them and embrace
them in love. We must treat each other in a godly way and not allow sin to
destroy or hinder our fellowship. How can we rightfully expect to worship the
Lord alongside of someone whom we have issues with? It is why the Lord
instructs us to first go and make things right with our brothers and then come
and offer our offerings before him. You cannot live rightly with God if you are
not living rightly with your brother.
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