There is a warning at the end of Deuteronomy 7. They are to get rid of everything. It is devoted to destruction.

If they take say, some gold, then they themselves will be devoted to destruction too. We will see that in the book of Joshua and the story of Achan.

They must abhor the abominable things. Do you hate detestable things? There are people addicted to their sins. Why? Because they love them.

The man addicted to looking at bad things on the internet may say he wants to stop. On some level he doesn’t want to do it, but the truth is he loves his sin. If he hated it, it wouldn’t be a temptation! He wouldn’t be drawn to it if he hated it! The deep, down truth is that he doesn’t want to give up his sin.

A controlling wife may say she wants to respect her husband and submit to him, and on some level that might be true, but deep down she doesn’t want to give up control. If she really wanted to, she would. It would be easy because it’s what she wants to do.

We have to hate sin. If we hate it, it has no power of temptation over us. There’s no draw to something we hate! If something is tempting you, there is a lack of hate for it in your heart. Hate the sin!

An image I have of this is from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis. There is a boy who is turned into a dragon because of his greed. In the end he is set free from his dragon skin and it is torn off.

We are set free from this flesh. We are delivered from Satan’s kingdom into God’s kingdom. When God shows me something ugly in myself, in the spirit I tear it away. I want to get it off and throw it away.

We’re to put off the flesh. Paul tells us “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires.” (Eph. 4:22)

Get rid of it. Hate it. Want to get as far away from it as possible.

And realize this, if you don’t hate your sin, you are loving it. If you are loving it, then there is no way you are loving God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Your love is divided.

Jesus tells us we can’t serve two masters. We’ll love the one and hate the other. Who do you really love?