Day 102: Good Hate

Romans 12:9b

Abhor that which is evil.

This small fragment of a verse exposes an area where many people in the Church have allowed the ideas and philosophies of the world to influence and even
modify the truth of God’s word. We all know that God is love, but it has become quite unpopular to recognize the clear fact that God also hates.

In a world without absolutes, it is easy to see how an anti-hate philosophy might leak into the church, and with an enemy who knows that such beliefs not only look good
on the outside but also make it easier for him to do his work without restrictions, adds even more power to the philosophy.

In reality, evil is to be hated by Christians. This is not to say that we should hate those for whom Christ died. Although, God may still hate those who reject His
salvation (Psalm 139:22, Psalm 5:5, Psalm 11:5). Instead, we should be hating the sin both in others as well as in ourselves. This is not just in one place in the Bible:

Proverbs 8:13

The fear of Yahweh is to hate evil.
I hate pride, arrogance, the evil way, and the perverse mouth.

We can’t even show the proper respect for God at all without hating evil. This idea that we can be Christians and “tolerate” evil is actually a sly method of getting
us to disrespect our God and lose our way. How important it is to respect God enough to hate what He hates.