“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2) Full of love, compassion, a desire to serve Almighty God with every breath, and, oh yes, we will have a fervent desire to hate evil.
Many do not like to take that last step, the love part is great, but not that hatred thing, that just doesn’t seem right to them. Think in these terms for just a moment, if love truly is an action, is inaction hate? Well, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17) So yes, we can say that it might be considered hate, for it is a sin, and anything that is not of faith is a sin. (Romans 14:23) I am not taking verses out of context here, search the Scriptures, the true expression of love has always been an action that we take on behalf of another human being that holds absolutely no benefit for us. If you get a warm, fuzzy feeling inside, you may go right ahead and misinterpret that emotion as from the Holy Spirit, but no matter the emotional state you attribute to that action, without it, you would not be able to express love.
It is why you and I and everyone else can never base our faith in Christ as Lord on any emotion, it is one of the greatest traps we can fall into. Positive emotions will give you pause to rejoice, negative ones, not so much, and that is definitely not what the Word of God teaches, we are to rejoice always. (1 Thess. 5:16) Far too many in this generation of Christians are weak-willed individuals, they may want to speak about the mercy and everlasting love of God, but few will stand in the face of evil, oh, they will talk about it behind closed doors, in the privacy of certain companions, they will listen to some who stand behind the pulpit preach on it, but when it stands in front of them, they have no words of rebuke, no desire to admonish, correct, and show that individual the folly of their ways.
Thus began the enabled society, which led to “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20) And it was, to a large degree, our fault.
There are many who are more than willing to stand in a crowd and shout their acceptance of whatever cause is at hand, but very few are willing to stand in the front row. Those who do, and survive, are most generally the ones that end up being followed by the others, but for how far is the question. We are commanded to love our enemies, even Solomon knew this long before Christ spoke the words, (Prov. 25:21) and we are also commanded to hate evil, a precept that many who say they follow Christ seem to draw the line at, at least when it comes to the action of love. How much greater love can we show to those who are living in unrepented sin, whose hearts believe themselves to be the master of their own destiny, those who are well versed and experienced in the language of hate and pain, than to not only tell them of the Savior, but of the eternity that awaits them if they refuse His call, and what type of hatred are we showing to them if we do not the truth to and for them.
If love is an action, then hatred is not only inaction, but must be voiced as an action against sin, and here is where many who claim Christ as Lord fall, they will not raise their voice against evil. The reason of course is fear, expounded greatly by many excuses. You might not be able to respond to their expected criticism because of your lack of knowledge of the Scriptures, which would completely be your fault, you may not be liked by those individuals any more, and then you would not be able to continue to be unequally yoked with them, (2 Cor. 6:14) they might laugh and mock you, they may even attempt to plant false accusations against you, sound familiar? These evil people might even beat you, punch and spit on you, they might take you to court, they might cast you into prison, who knows, if you stand up against evil, if you proclaim to the face of those who are enamored by the world, who are filled with pride, who are evil, they may even kill you, after they are finished torturing your flesh and mind.
Inaction when we are confronted with evil is a sin, and it is the opposite of the love of Christ that we are continuously to be portraying. The majority of Christians, or at least may who call themselves by that name, are in hiding today, either hiding behind masks that supposedly still show faith in Christ, or hiding at home because those who are to be preaching the Word of God in boldness and firm conviction have decided to lock the doors of the church instead. Many it is sad to say who read the Scriptures very rarely apply them outside of their own minds, they are filled with good intentions, with hollow words that reverberate around only their own mind, their inaction has caused them to sin, and all because they still love their lives and the continuation of it above all else.
We have almost reached the edge my friends, the age of grace is coming to a close, wrath, the wrath of God Almighty will be poured out upon the inhabitants of this planet, upon the evil in it that we are supposed to hate. How much you love others by your actions is how you show your love for Christ. “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.” (James 2:18) How much you hate and speak up against evil is how you show your love for Christ, one cannot exist without the other.
