Reading: Psalm
97:10-12
“You who love the Lord, hate evil” (10)
As Christians, we do not have to search
hard to find reasons why we should hate evil. When we consider our previous
condition without Christ, sin was that which kept us apart from God; sin placed
us on and kept us on the broad road to destruction; it was the disease that
hardened our heart against the things of God, blinding our spiritual eyes to
the wonders and magnificence of our Sovereign God.
Sin is the cause of all wickedness in the
world. Crime, war, “adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions,
jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy,
murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like” are, every one, branches on
the tree called sin. Are we disgusted with the moral degradation so evident in
our country today? It is all the outworking of sin.
Every one of us were
under the control of sin, so much so that the bible tells us that our heart is
“deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Classified as “dead in
our trespasses and sins” and “without hope in this world,” life here on earth
was the closest we would ever be to heaven. In such a condition before God our
eternal existence is guaranteed to be hell. But, thanks be
to God, “you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in
the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” 1 Cor
6:11.
“Heaven
came down and glory filled my soul,
When
at the cross the Savior made me whole;
My
sins were washed away, and my night was turned to day,
Heaven
came down and glory filled my soul.” John W. Peterson.
Even as born again believers sin
constantly seeks to gain entrance into our lives to keep us from enjoying the
wonderful inheritance our Heavenly Father has given us. Our inheritance as
children of God includes His “love, joy,
peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control,” wisdom, victory, and much more, but sin will rob us of
enjoying and experiencing all of these things.
Our text couples the hatred of sin with
loving God. If we do not love God, we cannot hate sin. If we tolerate sin in
our life in any measure, what we may call love for God is not true love. The
definition of a godly man is, according to our reading, one who loves God and
hates sin. For such a person, God preserves their soul and delivers them out of
the hand of the wicked. Our susceptibility to sin is in direct relationship to
our love for God. The more we love God, the more we will hate sin and find the
strength to deter its influence in our life. On the other hand, the more we
accommodate and tolerate sin, the less we will know His peace and joy.
Sin is a robber, no matter how we look at
it. However, to him who loves God and hates sin, he will find no difficulty in
rejoicing in the Lord and giving thanks at the remembrance of His hole
name—Psalm 97:12.