FEAR GOD, HATE EVIL

 

FEAR GOD, HATE EVIL

Prov. 8:13 All who fear the LORD will hate evil. That is why I hate pride, arrogance, corruption, and perverted speech. NLT

How much do you hate evil? How we feel about evil is reflected in how we live. The more we despise evil, the more we will avoid it and strive to live a holy life. Take a moment and think about how you react when evil rears its ugly head. Do you ignore it? Do you tolerate it? Do you indulge in it? Does it repulse you? Do you try to squash it?

Evil is everywhere we are at. We can't avoid it and whether or not we think we are, we are doing something about it. We are either participating in it, condoning it, or resisting it. We cannot be neutral about it. If we are in Christ, we do make choices about it all the time. When we let it entertain us we are choosing it instead of righteousness. When we allow it to go on uncontested around us, we are choosing it instead of righteousness. If we truly hated evil, I suspect things would be quite different in our homes, churches and world.

If we are in Christ, we ought to have strong feelings about evil. We should hate all that robs the soul of life and destroys it. We should not tolerate those who blatantly do evil. We may not be able to stop them, but we certainly can resist the urge to join them in their evil. We can speak up when we have the opportunity. We can urge those who do evil to stop and repent. We can all do something instead of sitting by and letting evil go wild around us.

We forfeit our right to complain about it if we are not willing to do something about it. We who are in Christ must resist it. We must be advocates for righteousness. We must be part of the solution and not the problem. God commands us to be lights in the darkness. When we don't do it, it is sin.

When we have a proper fear of God we will have a proper attitude about evil. We must understand the holiness of God and its impact on how God treats us. God is absolutely holy and He will absolutely judge all sin. It is that which is evil that sends a person to hell. It should frighten us to the point where we keep it out of our hearts and move us to do what we can to get it out of the hearts of others.