“O you who love the Lord, hate evil!” Ps97.10 ESV
It may seem strange to us that love of God and hate of evil walk hand in hand. To love Jesus is to loathe sin; to adore Christ is to abhor the cause of His suffering; and to be devoted to light is to despise darkness. When we think about it, any commitment to establishing good demands that we be just as committed to removing what is bad. A gardener not only nurtures his crop, he kills the weeds, which threaten it.
When we are told to hate evil, we should hate it first and foremost in ourselves. But there is a difference in hating sin and loving the sinner. And, if God extends this grace to us we should at least extend it to ourselves. God does not want me to hate myself. He actually wants me to love myself. But it is a silly notion that to love myself I must accept myself as I am, when what I am is not good for me. We love ourselves when we seek our greatest good. Our greatest good is to love the Lord and consequently to hate all that is preventing us from that. 9/29/2008 ts
Just me trying to be honest with God.
