When Sin Becomes Abomination

“These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness, and one who sows discord among the brethren.” Historically, these sins from Proverbs 6:16-19 have been coined the “Seven Deadly Sins”. Theologically, the Lord calls them abominations. The question is: Why does the Lord use that word? What is it about these sins that warrant such a harsh label? What does it even mean biblically? Well, let’s look.
“Abomination” in the Hebrew generally refers to something that is detestable, disgusting, abhorring, or idolatrous to the Lord. It has moral, ethical, and ritualistic applications but is most often used when referring to sins that are unnatural and specifically revolting to God. Unnatural abominations would be things like homosexuality (or any form of sexual immorality), child sacrifice, and bestiality – things that violated God’s original design for Creation. Ethical abominations would be things like lying, pride, murder, adultery, dishonoring parents, and sewing discord in the church – things that were offenses between people. And ritualistic abominations would be things like idolatry, violating dietary restrictions, and defiling the Sabbath or the House of God – things that would profane God’s design for worship.
Now, in all this there is an underlying principle of why abominations are isolated to be especially grievous: They are sins against the Person and character of God Himself. Abominations are specific acts that, when committed, are personal to God. They are crimes against Him. You see, though all sin has vertical (it offends God) and horizontal (it offends others) consequences, there are some that are especially egregious acts against the nature, Person, and character of God. The Bible calls them abominations, and, often, they came with the death penalty. That’s right, committing certain sins was punishable by death. That shows just how serious these offenses are to a holy God.
For the believer, we are not exempt from committing abominations so we must guard against the temptation to do so. Obviously, if we walk close to the Lord, we won’t want to commit such heinous acts against the God we love. However, Christians are capable of them. So, we must always keep our hearts and minds clear from the lust that would lure us into their trap. In so doing, we bless the Lord with faithfulness, not filthiness. Something to think about today!

Blessings,
Bro. Ben