“Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.” —Psalm 97:10-11
Through the apostle James the Holy Spirit declared, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” It is a warning that reflects the emphasis in all of scripture against spiritual compromise. Consider for example the frequency of the word “all.” Take for a case in point the familiar, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths [Prov. 3:5-6].” Here a great promise of divine guidance through the labyrinth of life is extended, but it is predicated upon wholehearted, uncompromising and universal commitment to His lordship. The promise does not apply for those who are living compartmentalized lives.
The same principle is seen in the first clause of our text for today. “Ye that love the Lord hate evil.” Love and hate are diametrically opposed to one another. We are not given the dubious luxury of a middle ground. Everything that follows is predicated upon this perspective; a whole-hearted love for God and a corresponding hatred for all that is contrary to His nature and His will.
Most of our failure as Christians comes from our half hearted attitude toward sin. Or, from our inclination to hate certain sins, but to take a compromising attitude toward certain others. And in too many cases we confuse the issue either by redefining sin as a some kind of unfortunate tendency, or through our ignorance of the word of God failing to recognize it at all. “ALL unrighteousness is sin [I John 5:17].” And all that is contrary to the word of God in thought, word or deed, is unrighteousness. (Which is why believers need to know the word of God!)
“Ye that love the Lord,hate evil.” This is the perspective of victory and blessing. Spurgeon observed, “We cannot love God without hating what He hates.” But it is also to be observed that love for God precedes hatred for sin. Everything begins here, and our problems stem not first from our failure to properly hate evil, but from a superficial love for God. Delilah posed a penetrating question when she asked Samson, “How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me [Judges 16:15]?” God might well ask us the same question. Too often we are not “upright in heart,” (v.11) but tilted toward “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life,” all of which sent the Savior to the cross.
For those however, who do love the Lord and incline to uprightness in heart, there is here a present promise. He will preserve their souls and deliver them out of the hand of the wicked. It is, in fact, a two fold promise. There is the promise of preservation in the present and deliverance in the future. Those who love the Lord and hate evil face an unending conflict as the “wicked [one]” seeks relentlessly to compromise their testimony. Happily, they are secure in Christ, “Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time [I Peter 1:5].” God does not promise to remove us from the conflict but to secure us in it. And there will come a “last day” for the individual saint and ultimately for the whole company of the redeemed when we shall be forever removed from the influences of the evil one in a “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness [II Pet. 3:13].”
For the present the battle continues, and those who love the Lord are called to stand and withstand in this present evil day, wrestling “against…principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness…,” knowing that there is a glorious prospect before us: “Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.” "Weeping may endure for a night," but there is a harvest of blessing coming in the morning when “this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory [I Cor. 15:54].”
To this end may God enable us to resist the compromising spirit of this present age. Love the Lord. Hate evil.
“It will be worth it all when we see Christ!”
For His glory and our eternal good,
"Pastor" Frasier
Through the apostle James the Holy Spirit declared, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” It is a warning that reflects the emphasis in all of scripture against spiritual compromise. Consider for example the frequency of the word “all.” Take for a case in point the familiar, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths [Prov. 3:5-6].” Here a great promise of divine guidance through the labyrinth of life is extended, but it is predicated upon wholehearted, uncompromising and universal commitment to His lordship. The promise does not apply for those who are living compartmentalized lives.
The same principle is seen in the first clause of our text for today. “Ye that love the Lord hate evil.” Love and hate are diametrically opposed to one another. We are not given the dubious luxury of a middle ground. Everything that follows is predicated upon this perspective; a whole-hearted love for God and a corresponding hatred for all that is contrary to His nature and His will.
Most of our failure as Christians comes from our half hearted attitude toward sin. Or, from our inclination to hate certain sins, but to take a compromising attitude toward certain others. And in too many cases we confuse the issue either by redefining sin as a some kind of unfortunate tendency, or through our ignorance of the word of God failing to recognize it at all. “ALL unrighteousness is sin [I John 5:17].” And all that is contrary to the word of God in thought, word or deed, is unrighteousness. (Which is why believers need to know the word of God!)
“Ye that love the Lord,hate evil.” This is the perspective of victory and blessing. Spurgeon observed, “We cannot love God without hating what He hates.” But it is also to be observed that love for God precedes hatred for sin. Everything begins here, and our problems stem not first from our failure to properly hate evil, but from a superficial love for God. Delilah posed a penetrating question when she asked Samson, “How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me [Judges 16:15]?” God might well ask us the same question. Too often we are not “upright in heart,” (v.11) but tilted toward “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life,” all of which sent the Savior to the cross.
For those however, who do love the Lord and incline to uprightness in heart, there is here a present promise. He will preserve their souls and deliver them out of the hand of the wicked. It is, in fact, a two fold promise. There is the promise of preservation in the present and deliverance in the future. Those who love the Lord and hate evil face an unending conflict as the “wicked [one]” seeks relentlessly to compromise their testimony. Happily, they are secure in Christ, “Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time [I Peter 1:5].” God does not promise to remove us from the conflict but to secure us in it. And there will come a “last day” for the individual saint and ultimately for the whole company of the redeemed when we shall be forever removed from the influences of the evil one in a “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness [II Pet. 3:13].”
For the present the battle continues, and those who love the Lord are called to stand and withstand in this present evil day, wrestling “against…principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness…,” knowing that there is a glorious prospect before us: “Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.” "Weeping may endure for a night," but there is a harvest of blessing coming in the morning when “this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory [I Cor. 15:54].”
To this end may God enable us to resist the compromising spirit of this present age. Love the Lord. Hate evil.
“It will be worth it all when we see Christ!”
For His glory and our eternal good,
"Pastor" Frasier
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