1
Tim 5:20 As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of
all, so that the rest may stand in fear.
NOTE: For the
believer, we know that nothing can separate us from the love of God. But God
takes a strong line against persistent sin. For the believer, he acts as a
Father, and promises discipline. Hebrews is a story of God's discipline toward
believers who were discarding the faith. Yes, the discipline can lead all the
way to physical death, as described in the Hebrew passages talking about fire,
the coming burning down of Jerusalem that was fulfilled in AD 70, for those
believers who chose to identify with their former faith instead of their new
faith. They did not lose their salvation, but they lost any opportunity to
bring glory to God through service.
But what about the
unbeliever, the person who has never asked Jesus to be their savior (to take
their sin upon his body). Well, we know that Jesus loves the world, which is a
slightly different thing to say than God loves sinners. And we know that the first
mention of emotional pain in the bible is when God is "pained"
because of the sin of the people on earth (sin caused pain in God's heart), and
he decides to destroy most of mankind in a flood. In this latter case, the
issue may be that God knows how destructive is sin and how we fall so far short
of who we could be, that it pains him to see ourselves so blinded. We also know
from Psalms and Proverbs, that God not only hates some very specific sin but in
certain cases, the sinner, specifically murders or those who pervert justice or
liars. Still Psalms, a book about the emotional heart of a believer, and
Proverbs, a book about general principles of truth, are hard places to build a
theology. But Jesus' words alone should cause us to worry, especially when he
pronounces woe to the person who introduces others to sin, suggesting that they
would be better off with a millstone around their neck and thrown into the sea.
So clearly there is specific actions against those unbelievers who through their
sin fight against God. Another example would be Jesus' words toward Judas after
his betrayal.
But this could be a
very painful subject, especially for the mother of a possibly unsaved child who
is engaged in persistent sin. Who would want to hear that God hates their child
which they still love so much?
We are not God's
children (unless we have been born again), we are God's creation. When we
believe, we are adopted into the family and become God's children, but we are
not his children otherwise. Does he love us? Yes, because he loves the world
and we are the most important part of that creation. Does he hate sinners?
Well, yes, at least in certain instances. But what gives us hope? That no
matter how badly we have sinned, his love is only a cry away. And then Romans
tells us that nothing can then separate us from his love ever again.
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