Hate evil

Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph. – Amos 5.14-15

We live in a world of great evil. Of course God’s people have always lived in an evil world. When evil is that pervasive it can be hard to deal with. It is just everywhere and it seems that everyone is doing it. The easy thing to do is to just, maybe not give in, but to be accepting of just a little of the evil and not make too big a deal about it. After all, don’t we have to accept a little evil for the ultimate good? The end in reality can justify the means, right?

Except for the fact that God doesn’t see it that way. He simply says ‘hate the evil and love the good.’

God’s people in the Old Testament had no place dabbling with evil. Christians today have no business playing around with the evil. With our liberty in Christ and being free from the law a lot of folks think it is okay to mess around with the verge of evil as long as we don’t really get too involved.

But that is a wrong view of evil. God tells us how we should deal with evil and it is pretty simple – hate it, despise, have nothing to do with it, run from it. Christians have to live in an evil world, but we need to see it in all its evilness. We need to see its destructive power. We need to see it from God’s perspective.

God’s people must always stand opposed to evil. We can’t tolerate it just because those who practice it can help us achieve our goals or our ends. We should never tolerate evil in people in politics because they can help us achieve our political goals.

Hate evil – no matter what.