Shake at the Appearance of Sin

The final words that we have written from Alma the Younger were these: “The Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance” (Alma 45:16).  This obviously represented an enormous shift of understanding for him from his early years when he was “a very wicked and an idolatrous man” and did lead “many of the people to do after the manner of his iniquities” (Mosiah 27:8).  Alma went from a life of sin to not being able to accept it in the least degree.  He understood that sin was contrary to God’s nature and I believe he had become as he had described the ancient prophets to the people of Ammonihah: he was “pure and spotless before God” such that he “could not look upon sin save it were with abhorrence” (Alma 13:12).  Surely developing that kind of spirituality such that we can’t see sin with any feeling but abhorrence is part of our becoming like God.  

                Other prophets likewise referred to this goal that we should have of becoming so pure that sin is simply repulsive to us. Nephi pled with the Lord for just that: “O Lord, wilt thou redeem my soul? Wilt thou deliver me out of the hands of mine enemies? Wilt thou make me that I may shake at the appearance of sin?” (2 Nephi 4:31)  Paul told the Romans that this was how he felt: “For what I know is not right, I would not do; for that which is sin, I hate” (JST Romans 7:16).  He likewise encouraged them in this language: “Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good” (Romans 12:9).  The Psalmist said simply to “love the Lord” and “hate evil,” and the writer of Proverbs taught that “the fear of the Lord is to hate evil” (Psalms 97:10, Proverbs 8:13).  Amos taught the people of Israel likewise to “hate the evil, and love the good” (Amos 5:15).  Alma told his son Helaman that he should teach the people to have “an everlasting hatred against sin and iniquity” and to “abhor such wickedness and abominations and murders” (Alma 37:29, 32).  We are to abhor and to hate and to shake at sin and evil, and perhaps a way for us to measure our own progress towards becoming like the Savior is how repulsive sin and wrongdoing is to us.

                The prophet Joseph said this: “We consider that God has created man with a mind capable of instruction, and a faculty which may be enlarged in proportion to the heed and diligence given to the light communicated from heaven to the intellect; and that the nearer man approaches perfection, the clearer are his views, and the greater his enjoyments, till he has overcome the evils of his life and lost every desire for sin; and like the ancients, arrives at that point of faith where he is wrapped in the power and glory of his Maker and is caught up to dwell with Him” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 51).  Ultimately we must lose all desire for sin in order to one day dwell with Him, and that is much more difficult than simply not participating in evil works.  As the Sermon on the Mount teaches us, our thoughts and desires are as important as our acts.  For example, not committing adultery is not good enough—we must not even have the faintest desire to do so.  Not being violent is not good enough—we must not even get angry.  Such is the challenging road for the disciple of Christ to overcome the world.  Like Alma we all desperately need the atonement to help us change our hearts so that we too cannot “look upon sin save it were with abhorrence.”