Becoming more like Christ begins with a transformed heart. Not only does God want to change our hearts to cause them to love him and our neighbor; he also wants us to learn to hate evil. Paul commands Christ-followers, Abhor evil (Romans 12:9). The Greek word he uses for abhor is APOSTUGEO, which means “to shudder with hatred.” This command makes sense for people who are told, Be holy as I am holy. At the heart of holiness is hatred for sin. As A. W. Tozer points out:
God is holy and He has made holiness the moral condition necessary to the health of His universe. Sin’s temporary presence in the world only accents this. Whatever is holy is healthy; evil is a moral sickness that must end ultimately in death. The formation of the language itself suggests this, the English word holy deriving from the Anglo-Saxon halig, hal, meaning “well, whole.” (The Knowledge of the Holy)
God’s holy nature is expressed in his creation of the universe so that it is governed by his moral law. Following that moral law is always the pathway to physical, psychological, and spiritual health. God made this reality clear to his people just before they entered the promised land (Deuteronomy 28:2-6).
And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
God has designed our world so that to violate his moral law is to always bring devastation. The wage that sin pays is always destruction. Although it may appear outwardly that a person gets away with it, inwardly sin always rots the soul. Its internal decay erodes the heart, corrupts human desire, and darkens the understanding. Outwardly, sin always damages relationships. Even natural disasters are the result of the curse brought upon Adam and Eve’s kingdom when they aligned themselves with Satan’s rebellion and the kingdom of darkness. Every ounce of pain experienced by human beings is the result of sin having come into the world. That is why we are to shudder with hatred for evil! We are to hate evil, as God does. Again, in the words of Tozer:
Since God’s first concern for His universe is its moral health, i.e. its holiness, whatever is contrary to this is necessarily under his eternal displeasure. To preserve His creation, God must destroy whatever would destroy it. When He arises to put down iniquity, and save the world from irreparable moral collapse, He is said to be angry. Every wrathful judgement in the history of the world has been a holy act of preservation. The holiness of God, the wrath of God, and the health of the creation are inseparably united. God’s wrath is his utter intolerance of whatever degrades and destroys. He hates iniquity as a mother hates the cancer that would take the life of her child.
5 Ways that Hating Evil Changes Us
1. Our conscience will become our best friend. Instead of viewing the warnings of our conscience as God nagging us about our lack of perfection, and doubting whether God really is good in having all these rules, we will view our conscience as the warning light on the dash board, telling us that continuing down this path is going to break something in us that will have to be repaired later at greater cost.
2. Our love for the Word of God will increase. As David says,
Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Psalm 119:97-103)
3. We will battle more fiercely to protect our hearts from the pull of sinful desire. Many Christian men have great regret that they did not listen to God’s warning in Proverbs 4:23, Watch over your heart with al diligence for from it flow the springs of life. We need to be students of our own hearts, noticing what enticements are stimulating our heart hungers and walk away from that enticement. The longer David gazed at Bathsheba taking a bath the more certain it became that he wold surrender to his lust.
4. We will struggle less with envying the lost who are outwardly prosperous. In Psalm 73, Asaph tells us of his struggle with envying the prosperity of the lost who seemed to have far fewer problems and far greater success than he was having…until he went into the sanctuary of God and perceived their end (vs 17). No matter how pleasant sin feels at the moment, sowing the seeds of sin always results in reaping corruption.
5. We will be more compassionate towards those enslaved to sin, which is destroying them. During Jesus’ triumphal entrance into Jerusalem on what we now call Palm Sunday, we read that when Jesus saw the City of Jerusalem—the glorious city of David—he broke down and began to weep because he saw the suffering that would come upon it for rejecting him, the Messiah sent from God. The more we hate sin and the way it ruins all of life, the more compassionate we will be towards those broken by it. In the culture war, we need to take a stand for biblical values in the public arena. But if we are not full of compassion for the way sin is destroying the lives of those who peddle an anti-biblical worldview, we will be perceived as harsh and uncaring. More importantly we might BE harsh and uncaring, which is not being Christ-like!
For Further Thought
1. In your own words, why should you hate evil?
2. Of the 5 results of hating sin mentioned above, which do you most want to see in your life?
