Let those who love the Lord hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked. (Psalm 97:10)
“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)
Here we go. This isn’t the only verse about hating evil.
There are ten others that use the phrase, and lots more than discuss one aspect
or another of hating evil. We are supposed to hate evil. For Christians, this
isn’t a new tension. There’s an old adage about hating the sin but loving the
sinner. That’s not an easy thing to do. Just ask anyone to whom it is suggested
that they love Hitler, the most recent spree-killer, or someone who abuses
children or animals. Love those monsters? They are evil!
But when it comes to “lesser” evils, if we suggest that the
deeds are evil, we are denounced as being evil in our hatred of those poor
people. Sadly, this is the way evil operates. As long as you can point at someone
else as being evil, you’re OK. It’s unavoidable. We cannot let mercy for the
people lead to acceptance of their sin. Neither can we let judgement of the sin
to lead to judgment of the people. Few of us wake up one morning and decide to
become either sinful or a monster, but as C.S. Lewis pointed out, with each thought
and act, we are moving either toward being a monster, or toward being something
that might inspire worship. We are always a little of both. We are both sinner
and victim. Our task is to help the victim, but to do that, we must hate the
sin.
So how do we do this? According to today’s passage, we do
this by turning to God, by seeking His guidance and protection, by studying the
Word and by praying for wisdom and vision, and by loving both justice and mercy.
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