“It follows logically that the person who is seeking to demonstrate true “agape”
love will also hate evil. Hating evil is the flip side of having love, which by
definition, can’t be attracted to or “rejoice in unrighteousness: (1Corinthians
13:6). Since “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10), it
follows that “the fear of the Lord is to hate evil” (Prov. 8:13). The believers
will “abhor what is evil” (Rom. 12:9) because that’s what God does.
When we are faithful followers of Christ who seriously want to be known
for our integrity we cannot accommodate any form or degree of evil. But that is
often easier said than accomplished. The fight to avoid evil is part of the
larger battle for personal holiness. Even Paul confessed, “I am of flesh, sold
into bondage to sin. For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am
not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate...For
the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not
wish, But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one
doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is
present in me, the one who wishes to do good. For I joyfully concur with the
law of God in the inner man” (Rom. 7:14-15,19-22). It might be a struggle, but
when a believer confronts sin and sometimes succumbs to it, his inner, godly
self will, with God’s help, eventually disapprove and turn from the evil.
Conventional human wisdom says that the only way to hate evil is to be
shocked by it. But the constant bombardment of our senses in today’s multimedia
culture, with all its immorality and violence, makes it hard to be shocked by
anything. Sadly, many believers amuse themselves with larger and more continual
doses of worldly and ungodly diversions. They rationalize their behavior by
believing that because they are Christians, exposure to sin and evil will not
have a lasting effect on them. But in reality, such constant intake makes
Christians immune to the shocking nature of evil, which of course lessens their
resistance to evil and makes them more accommodating.
If we truly hate evil, however, we will want simply to avoid it in the
first place. Consider the godly man in Psalm 1: “How blessed is the man who
does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners,
nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and
in His law he meditates day and night: (vv. 1-2) We can’t flirt with sin and
evil and not be affected by them.”
-Pastor John MacArthur, “The Power of Integrity: Building a Life Without
Compromise”
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