Hating Sin

Monday Devotion

[Job’s] sons used to take turns holding feasts in their homes, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would send and have them purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular custom.

Job 1:4–5

Job hated sin and feared God. What a powerful message Job’s example must have passed on to his children, especially when they saw how earnestly he contended for their salvation and spiritual health. Surely, they must have known. Surely, they must have talked among themselves: “Did you hear how Dad went home and offered a sacrifice in case one of us got a little too loose at the party last night and sinned against God?”

What do my kids see me getting passionate about? Do they watch as I enthusiastically praise an athletic performance or an A+ on a math test, while at the same time minimizing an act of disrespect toward their mom or of cruelty toward a sibling? Or do they see me even inviting sin into my home, acting as though sinful influences won’t affect their souls and weaken their spiritual resolve? Do my children think I hate sin? Or do they see me tolerate it, maybe even occasionally enjoy it?

Job knew well the toll that sin can exact from a human life. Even without our New Testament perspective—that Jesus Christ came to destroy sin—Job zealously tried to root it out of his life and his family. Sometimes, I think we simply forget how utterly loathsome and destructive sin can be. When we model a holy hatred of sin, we can spare our children much of the pain that sin brings.