The Character of God

We got back to our study of the character of God this week.  To see our past study of this, click here.  This week the focus was on how God hates sin.  Since the wrath of God can be a bit much for a child, I decided that we would only stay on this topic for one week.

I started out the week reading Nahum 1:2-3 to my son and having him copy it down into his notebook.

On the second day, I read him the story of Achan, starting in Joshua 6:18-19 and then skipping ahead to read all of chapter 7.  The background is that Jericho was the first city the Israelites would conquer.  They were to consecrate the entire city to God, they were not to take any spoils, this city was the first fruits of all the cities they would destroy.  But Achan couldn't resist!

On the next day we read the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5, the background is given in Acts 4:32-37.

On the day after that we read the description of the Battle of Armageddon in Revelation 19:11-21.  This was exciting to my son as we had read it before and he really enjoys battle scenes.

After all this talk about wrath, I wanted to end the week on a positive note.  So on the final day we had a little discussion.  It went like this...

Why does God hate sin?  It separates man from Him.  He created us to be in fellowship with Him.  Adam and Eve walked and talked with God daily, but once they allowed sin into this world, they were separated from God.  This had to be a horrible feeling!  We really can't even fathom it.  Remember when Jesus was up on the cross and He cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  At that moment He was separated from God because He became sin for us.  God cannot accept sin in His presence.  Thankfully, for you and I, He provided a way for us to come back into fellowship with Him--He sent His Son to take our place and take our sins upon Himself and take our punishment.

We talked about how Jesus is fighting His enemies in the Battle of Armageddon.  I asked my son if he was an enemy of God?  No!  I read him Galatians 3:26, "you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus" and I John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

I then asked him how we are to feel about sin?  We are to hate sin!  Does that mean that we tell sinners that we hate them?  Certainly not, we hate the actions, but LOVE the person.

Why should we love someone that is doing bad things?  John 13:34-35 gives us our answer, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."--because God loves them.