Overcoming Sin And Tempation - Chapter 8

Owen moves into Chapter 8 and now turns his focus to the "unversality of obedience". The key paragraph in the chapter is:

The true and acceptable principles of mortification shall be afterward insisted on. Hatred of sin as sin, not only as galling or disquieting, a sense of the love of Christ in the cross, lies at the bottom of all true spiritual mortification. Now, it is certain that that which I speak of proceeds from self-love. You set yourself with all diligence and earnestness to mortify such a lust or sin; what is the reason of it? It disquiets you, it has taken away your peace, it fills your heart with sorrow and trouble and fear; you have no rest because of it. Yea, but friend, you have neglected prayer or reading; you have been vain and loose in your conversation in other things, that have not been of the same nature with that lust wherewith you are perplexed. These are no less sins and evils than those under which you groan. Jesus Christ bled for them also. Why do you not set yourself against them also? If you hate sin as sin, every evil way, you would be no less watchful against everything that grieves and disquiets the Spirit of God, than against that which grieves and disquiets your own soul. It is evident that you contend against sin merely because of your own trouble by it. Would your conscience be quiet under it, you would let it alone. Did it not disquiet you, it should not be disquieted by you.

What I believe Owen is getting at here is the tendency of Christians to focus only on the sin that bothers THEM. But what Owen is getting at is that ALL SIN bothers God and we need to be diligent in examining ourselves in other areas to discover sin that "might not make us uncomfortable" but still it is an offense to God whether we are jarred or not.

Have you ever experienced this as a Christian. You can't shake a sin loose and you focus so much energy on that sin, that you completely ignore other blatant areas of your life that are just as sinful. Owen had insight that very few people today are blessed with.