There are certain pleasures with sin. Hebrews 11:24-25 “By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.” Sin has a certain appeal to it. You can be deceived into thinking that sin is desirable and ignore the terrible consequences of sin. Eve was deceived by the serpent, in Genesis 3, into thinking that the benefits of eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were worth disobeying God. As long as you look at the pleasures and “benefits” of sin, you will be tempted to yield to sin.
Sin is deceitful. It may be easy to see the pleasures and “benefits” of the sin and not see the evilness and the consequences that it brings. Hebrews 3:12-15 “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’” You need to give and receive daily exhortation to beware of the deceitfulness of sin.
The Israelites under Moses in the desert lusted after evil things. 1 Corinthians 10:5-6 “But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.” Learn from what happened to the Israelites and do not lust after evil things. Evil desire is one of the things you must put to death. Colossians 3:5-7 “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.” Sin must not reign within you that you allow yourselves to partake in the “pleasures” that it offers. Romans 6:12-14 “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
It is easy to see the benefits of money. It can buy you the necessities of life. It can buy you material goods. It can buy you luxuries. It can buy you many “pleasures”. Money itself is not evil or sinful. However, the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. 1 Timothy 6:10 “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” The problem comes when you have a love for money and the pleasures it offers; money can become your “god” instead of your heavenly Father.
You need to learn to hate all that is evil and sinful. Romans 12:9b “Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.” The word here translated as hate or abhor implies an intense hatred for the evil or sin. If you truly have an intense hatred for all sin and evil, the temptation to commit sin will be gone. Rather than loving sin or lusting for sinful things, develop a hatred for sin.