| “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 |
On Valentine’s Day, we generally focus on the myriad aspects of the word “love.” In contrast, the word “hate” has all kinds of negative emotion wrapped up in its four short letters. We often think of “hate” in contrast with “love” and rightly choose “love” over “hate.” But sometimes, there may actually be a time for what we might describe as a “proper hate.”
Near the very end of a Psalm of Praise to God, we find the Psalmist writing these words found in Psalm 97:10:
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.
After spending the nine previous verses voicing appropriate praise to God for His goodness, mercy, and unfailing love, the Psalmist decides that it is important to remind those singing this Psalm that there is a “proper hate.” Those who identify with the Kingdom of God—and celebrate the fact that He has chosen them to belong to Himself—have a responsibility, even a duty, to hate evil.
We live in a society that more and more wants to tolerate sinful behavior and even celebrate wrongdoing. Six years ago, the Christian writer Rod Dreher wrote an article—“Teen Love in the Ruins 2016”—about a new book, Firsts by a female author, Laurie Elizabeth Flynn, that celebrates the sexual activities of a teenaged girl. Dreher points out that the marketing for this book is unabashedly directed at girls from the ages of fourteen to eighteen. The publisher, MacMillan, literally celebrates this as a ground-breaking book. If you are at all squeamish, you may not want to click on the link above.
Dreher pushes back very hard against this book. As a Christian, he obviously believes he must use his bully pulpit, as a well-regarded writer for The American Conservative website, to denounce what is essentially a soft-porn enticement for unrestrained and wholly inappropriate sexual activity by very young girls.
As we begin another day, we may not have to face this particular kind of challenge in our lives. But, we do see examples of various kinds of evil every day—from the kinds of angry conversations that take place within the walls of our homes, to the open hostility of our current political climate, to the plethora of inappropriate programming provided by our national media. While our culture wants to silence all dissenting opinions, we who belong to Jesus need to take a definite stand against evil. We can no longer remain silent. We can no longer hide because we don’t want to offend our non-Christian friends.
In ways that are tempered by God-breathed love, we can take a stand against evil in this world. And, we can start by taking a stand against the evil in our own lives. If we do, we will fulfill a part of our responsibility as Christ’s ambassadors that few seem willing to address these days. And, we will most certainly please our God, who is the very embodiment of holiness.
As far as evil is concerned, there definitely is a time for a proper hate. More and more it seems that such a time is now.
Based on a blog originally posted on Sunday, February 7, 2016
