hater
Not too long ago, I was standing in line at Best Buy customer service. As usual, the line was not moving very fast. I don’t even remember now what I was there for. But I do remember very vivdly the conversation that took place between the guy in front of me and the Best Buy employee who was helping him. As the guy was making his purchase, the employee asked him if he would like to save 20% by signing up for a Best Buy credit card. The guy very firmly said “No! I hate credit cards.” I was thinking “good deal, another American rejecting the system and living debt free!” Then he continued… “so I limit myself to 2 of them.” I almost literally laughed out loud. Then I thought “wow, he doesn’t hate them too bad.”
Isn’t that the way we are with things, specifically sin? We hate it so we limit ourselves to just a little. Right? Is that really hating it? I don’t think so. I think we hate the ultimate results of it: guilt, regret, and distance from God. But we don’t hate the sin or else we would not go anywhere near.
Romans 12:9 challenges us to “Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.” Too often it is the sin that we cling to. We justify that we just have a couple. We try to convince ourselves that we have limited ourselves to just a little. And we sound just as ridiculous to God as that man sounded to me that day.
Proverbs 8:13 tells us that “to fear the Lord is to hate evil” and Psalm 97:10 challenges us: ”Let those who love the Lord hate evil.”
If you honestly open up your life, are there things you would say with your mouth that you hate, but your actions prove otherwise as you cling to them and justify it away?
I pray that you and I would love and fear the Lord so much that we would develop a deep seated hatred for the things that are not pleasing to Him. That we would truly hate what is evil so that we could truly cling to what is good.
