“O you who love the Lord, hate evil!
He preserves the lives of his saints;
he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.”
– Psalm 97:10
Here in this Holy Week leading up to Easter, we remember the work Christ did on our behalf to save us from our sins. As the end of His earthly ministry approached, Jesus prepared to take all our sins upon Himself, to bear God’s righteous wrath on the cross, and to die as a sacrifice to pay the penalty for sinful rebellion against God’s authority. Ultimately, Jesus died and He rose from the dead on Easter, victorious over the power of evil, sin, and death.
As we reflect on Christ’s terrible sacrifice and glorious victory, one necessary response for those who love the Lord is to truly hate evil as the psalmist writes here. Christians should never be indulging sin in our own lives. We shouldn’t be ignoring sin in ourselves or in other believers. We shouldn’t be excusing or trivializing sin that we think doesn’t hurt anyone or isn’t a big deal. We shouldn’t be celebrating sin in our culture.
All sin is rebellion against God. All sin separates us from our Holy Creator. All sin is evil and destructive. We must hate evil in our hearts, in the hearts of our brothers and sisters in Christ, and in the world. We must commit to living a life in Spirit-empowered pursuit of holiness like Jesus. We must commit to encourage other Christians to pursue holiness. We must commit to working against the evil we see in the world, in the name of Jesus! O you who love the Lord, hate evil!