OK, so I used to be a math guy, and I still like it for one reason: there is very clearly an answer to a problem. Every math problem in every math book has one answer. Not two answers, not twelve answers…just one. Though the solution may be difficult to discover, it is there.
So here are two simple equations for you today:
Love God = Hate Evil and Love Evil = Hate God
You who love the Lord, hate evil! He protects the lives of his godly people and rescues them from the power of the wicked. Psalms 97:10 (NLT)
Here is a definition of hate: to dislike intensely or passionately; feel extreme aversion for or extreme hostility toward; detest.
Do I hate evil? Am I hostile towards it? Do I detest it, loath it, reject it, run from it?
Or, do I date evil? Do I tolerate it, relax with it, laugh at it, enjoy it…even embrace it?
I think the answer is “it depends”. There is some evil on my Top-10 list of things that I hate. But I think I also have a list of things that I date but God hates. Gluttony is just plain fun. Gossip often feels good in the moment. Pride and arrogance help me to shift my focus to other people’s short-comings so that I can ignore mine.
Scripture says (in a bunch of places, by the way) that loving God naturally results in hating evil. It also says that loving evil reveals a hatred for God. We cannot have it both ways. Luke-warm is not an option He gives us.
Let me offer this prayer up for you and I. God, don’t allow us deceive ourselves any longer. Reveal the areas in our life where we are dating evil, courting it, enjoying it. Don’t let us rationalize it away, but convict us of our sin and cleanse us from loving the things that you hate. Help us to hate sin with a Godly hatred. Help us to love You God, and only you!
1 comment
Tom Houser says:
May 25, 2010 at 8:43 am (UTC -4 )
Had to do a quick correction to this original post…thanks Carol!