PSALM 97:10 – “O you who love the LORD, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.”
THEME OF THE DAY: HATING AND LOVING WHAT THE LORD HATES AND LOVES. The scripture of the day starts out with a statement to ponder – O you who love the Lord. The pondering is in the form of a question – Do we love the Lord? God doesn’t leave us in the dark in finding out the answer to the most important question in our human existence. The answer is found in Jesus’ words in the Upper Room Discourse. He would mention it three times. Such emphasis reveals the priority and importance it is to the Lord Himself . . .
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him” (John 14:21).
Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23)
As obedience is the ultimate litmus test of our love for Jesus, there are two fruits of such obedience that validate our love for the Lord. The first is given in today’s verse by two words – hate evil. When a person becomes a Christian, placed in Christ, the Holy Spirit plants within the believer a hatred for sin; a distaste for what caused Jesus to go to the cross. This seed grows as we see more and more the heinous nature of sin, the deceitful power of sin, and more importantly, a greater awareness of how God sees sin. With this hatred of evil, or sin, is also the avoidance of it. The Apostle Paul’s instructions to Timothy and us state what those who belong to the Lord do with evil and sin – “But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity” (2 Timothy 2:19).
The second fruit of obedience that shows our love for the Lord is the opposite of hating evil. It is loving the things God loves. Apart from love for Him, we are to love holiness. In essence that is to love God who is holy, but it extends to loving what God is doing in our lives – making us holy, conforming us into His image. Few things are more thrilling in the Christian life than knowing God is at work in us to do His will and His ultimate will is our holiness – “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5).
We move on in our love of the things God loves and that would be His Word. The Psalmist proclaims, “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97). Now we must be careful and not quickly say, “I love my Bible.” Our actions must match our words. To love God’s Word means to be in God’s Word consistently, to hear God’s Word preached faithfully, and to do God’s Word wholeheartedly.
To love what God loves and hate what God hates is a work of the Spirit of God in the hearts of His children. May both deepen in our lives to show forth the evidence our new life in Christ is real and alive!
PRAYER. Father, deepen within me a hatred for the things You hate, and love for the things You love.
REFLECTION: A love for the Lord not only consists in loving obedience but hatred for the things He hates.