Blake Robert Templeton argues that men who struggle with sin hate the shame, not the sin itself, which keeps them trapped in cycles of failure. True freedom requires what Proverbs 8:13 calls a boiling hatred of evil, not just managing it. Tolerating sin is agreement, and you have to cut it off completely.
Most men say they want freedom, but they don't actually hate what's killing them. They hate the consequences. They hate getting caught. They hate how it makes them feel after when they're in shame, but they don't hate the sin themself. And until you hate it, you will keep returning to it. Proverbs 8:13 says, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil, not manage it, not reduce it, not struggle with it, but to absolutely hate it. And that word hate, ah, it means so much to me because it's a boiling hatred. It's an absolute conviction that destroys anything else. Because whatever you tolerate, you still in agreement with. And whatever you still are in agreement with, it still has access to you. So like, don't tell me you want freedom if you still want to make peace with a thing that's destroying you.
