Abhor Sin

Our Attitude Toward Sin and Righteousness
September 4, 2006

“Therefore they were called after this holy order [of the high priesthood] and were sanctified, and their garments were washed white through the blood of the Lamb. Now they, after being sanctified by the Holy Ghost, having their garments made white, being pure and spotless before God, could not look upon sin save it were with abhorrence; and there were many, exceeding great many, who were made pure and entered into the rest of the Lord their God.” (Alma 13:11-12)

President Spencer W. Kimball wrote, “This passage indicates an attitude which is basic to the sanctification we should all be seeking, and thus to the repentance which merits forgiveness. It is that the former transgressor must have reached a 'point of no return' to sin wherein there is not merely a renunciation but also a deep abhorrence of the sin—where the sin becomes most distasteful to him and where the desire or urge to sin is cleared out of his life. (Spencer W. Kimball, God Will Forgive, Ensign, Mar. 1982, 2)

Look at the language used in the scriptures to describe the proper attitude toward and actions regarding sin (underlined) and righteousness (bolded):

• 2 Nephi 4: 31. Wilt thou make me that I may shake at the appearance of sin?
  
• Romans 12:9. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
  
• Alma 13:12. could not look upon sin save it were with abhorrence
  
• 2 Nephi 9:49. Behold, my soul abhorreth sin, and my heart delighteth in righteousness
  
• Proverbs 8:13. The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.
  
• 1 Corinthians 6:18. Flee fornication.
  
• 1 Corinthians 10:14. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.
  
• 1 Timothy 6:11. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
  
• Alma 45:16. the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance
  
• 2 Timothy 2:16. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
  
• Mosiah 5:2. the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.
  
  
  
  • “Perhaps of all the evidence of true conversion and a remission of sins, this is the most significant: the disposition to do evil no more, but to do good continually” (Spencer J. Condie, “A Disposition to Do Good Continually,” Ensign, Aug. 2001, 13).
    
  • “The seeds of our disposition toward good or evil are largely sown by our desires. In teaching the wayward Zoramites how they could gain a knowledge of the truth, Alma admonished them to “exercise a particle of faith,” and if they could “no more than desire to believe, [to] let this desire work in [them]” (Alma 32:27). What begins as a fleeting desire, when cultivated and pursued long enough, becomes a habitual form of thought or behavior.” (Spencer J. Condie, “A Disposition to Do Good Continually,” Ensign, Aug. 2001, 13)
    
  
  
• Alma 19:33. their hearts had been changed; that they had no more desire to do evil.
  
• Mosiah 4:13. ye will not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably, and to render to every man according to that which is his due.