Failing to love The LORD and other people as we should causes hurt and harm, both to ourselves and to others. This is why our Creator hates sin.
Sin spreads relentlessly - far worse than weeds in a garden. Given the choice, our parents, your parents would have had children who were not affected by sin, but that choice was not open to them. Perhaps this is why some parents find it hard to accept that their children do wrong things. The child which brings every parent joy also possesses the potential to reject their love as well as rejecting their Creator's love.
Sin traps people. This is one of the biggest perplexities of life. Inside, none of us really enjoys hurting others, but life is so hard that we find endless reasons to excuse our bad behaviour. We smother our consciences with these excuses, but deep within us there is commonly found a desire to be much better people than we are. We may have tried to change, but the battle is hard and we find it impossible to sustain. We may succeed in part, but none of us can motivate ourselves to consistently love our friends and family as we should, never mind the God who created us! We are about as successful as the man who tries to lift himself off the ground by pulling on his ankles.
Sin separates. It separates people from one another, but more importantly it separates them from the God who created them. No one needs to read the Bible to discover that sin puts barriers between people. The phrase “broken relationships” sums that up for every one of us. Shattered friendships are the source of endless pain around the world. Most of us have experienced one at least. Sadly, whilst we know the the grief of broken human relationships, most people fail to recognise the sorrow caused by their loss of contact with The LORD.
Sin kills in more way than one. Separation from God is so serious that the Bible describes it as death. This is not only the physical death which brings life on this earth to an end, but it is spiritual death which will stay with us long after our funerals. This death is the opposite of why The LORD created us! He created us to be His friends and it hurts Him when He cannot enjoy that friendship with us because we want to live this life our own way. We find an example of His agony over lost friendships in what He said through a prophet to a rebellious people of Israel in the Old Testament: “‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die?”
Next: God’s rescue plan