“Hate
evil, you who love the Lord, Who
preserves the souls of His godly ones;
He delivers them from the
hand of the wicked. Light is sown like seed for the righteous
and gladness for the
upright in heart. Be glad in the Lord,
you righteous ones, and give thanks to His holy name.” (rf. Ps. 97:10-12 NASB)
Most of us have been raised with a
very shallow concept of “love”. The
term has been so romanticized that it is hard to separate its meaning from some
level of pure emotion. For our unbelieving world, love is really nothing more
than hormones ignited or animal magnetism at work (which is not surprising
given their overwhelming affirmation of and belief in the theory of evolution).
However, such a perspective voids the word, “love”, of the inherent richness and depth of its value. It is
tantamount to expressing “light” only in terms of the amount of energy it
displays. There is so much more to love than feeling alone!
“Love”
in the Bible is conveyed in terms of commitment, devotion, and sacrifice. As
Jesus put it, “Greater love has no one
than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (rf. Jn.
15:13 NASB). One does not sacrifice oneself for others on a mere
whim or by means of a passing impression. There is a greater intensity and
gravity at work in one’s heart to move one to an action as this. In Jesus’
case, it was both His deep affection for His sheep to save them from their sin
and to fulfill the will of the Father concerning these same sheep (rf. Jn.
10:11-29). His love was, then, action borne out of a heart of
commitment, devotion and sacrifice, fully setting aside Himself on behalf of
the benefit of the well-being of others.
As Jesus so loved us and,
especially, His Father, so He expects us to “love” Him and His Father (rf. Jn. 5:23; 14:21). This is not
simply an emotional love that He speaks of. It is a love of total commitment of
one’s life, energy and priorities. This is the very essence of Deuteronomy
6:5. Everything in our being we should give to the Lord out of our
devotion to Him because of who He is, not simply for what He has done for us.
Our love for Him should be as His love for us—unconditional.
When we move from the shallow,
emotional-based perspective to a commitment to an action-based, sacrificial
view of love, we will also begin to see evil for the ugliness it represents as
a contrast to the purity of this love, as noted by the psalmist above. Like
darkness is to light, so is wickedness to unconditional love—it is
reprehensible and worthy of our hatred, even as it is of God’s wrath. Evil
stands for everything counter to God’s holiness and righteous will. It will come
to a just end in God’s economy, rest assured. It is definitely not a sin to
hate evil. Indeed, God already does. However, we must be careful not to stand
in God’s stead, dealing out God’s final judgment on those who, at this point,
are caught up in evil’s snares (rf. Mt. 7:1-5). We must remember
that, had it not been for the grace of God, we would be in the very same traps,
destined to eternal damnation, relishing in our own “pleasures of sin for a season”
(rf. Heb.
11:25 KJV) without a clue of how desperate our situation truly is
before God! We must learn the distinction between hating evil and loving our
enemies, interceding for those ensnared in the clutches of wickedness.
Thus, to love as God loves is a more
profound concept than we have probably ever realized. This is the high calling
which He has given each of us as believers. We are to “love” Him and our “neighbors”
(those in need who cross our paths daily, especially in the household of
faith—rf. Lev. 19:18; Gal. 6:10), but with a love committed
to the benefit of others, even to the sacrifice of ourselves. May the Lord
grant us the grace necessary for us to make the personal changes in our
understanding of our love to match His!
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