God gets our attention in many different areas by using His Word.  We read about our sin nature, our justification, redemption, forgiveness, and adoption in Christ in the pages of Scripture.  We are encouraged, comforted, enlightened to truth, and challenged to change.  “O you who love the Lord, hate evil!” Psalm 97:10   Today this verse jumped out at me as one that needs to be thought through as a follower of Christ.  So many times we read things but do not consider how to put them into action. Let’s look at the “how” which will move us in the direction of obedience.

1. We love what we know.

The challenge here is know God, his character, and his attributes.  If we don’t spend time seeking to know God, how in the world can we love Him as we should?  Think about what you love.  Whether it is people or hobbies, you have an affection for these things.  This affection comes about because of the knowledge you have of these things.  That knowledge came about by your pursuit of it.  If we are going to love God then we are going to have to pursue knowledge of Him.  This pursuit comes through the Scriptures, sermons, books, and gospel conversations.  Our verse makes the assumption that we love the Lord; but do we?  Are we seeking to know Him?

2. We love what we believe.

As we take up the challenge to know God then we have to believe what we find out about Him.  There are so many times when we doubt what we know to be true about God.  When we doubt these things, we don’t love because we don’t believe.  The Scripture tells us, “Love…believes all things,…” 1 Corinthians 13:7a  If we love God we will believe who He says He is.  Even in difficult times, we still believe and His love will carry us through.  Do you believe that God is who He says He is?

3. To hate evil is to be aware of the attraction of evil.

Remember Eve at the base of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,…” Genesis 3:6a  In this verse we can see the attraction evil is presenting.  Her eyes saw that it was good fruit.  The fruit itself did not look unappetizing but looked tasty.  She was also attracted to it because it was a delight to her eyes which probably means there were no bumps or bruises to mar its appearance.  Then she was very attracted to being wise.  Why wouldn’t she be?  She would want to gain as much wisdom as possible.  Isn’t that okay?  You can see that evil can be very attractive.  We have to look beyond the attraction to see the real danger of evil. Not all attraction is evil, but when our affection for something is greater than our affection for God, then it becomes evil.  This can be a good gift from God that we make an idol of our hearts.   Are you on your guard so that you are aware of the attraction of evil?

4. To hate evil is to reject the attraction.

We could start a “just say no” campaign but that probably wouldn’t work.  The reason we don’t reject the attraction of evil is because we aren’t aware of the dangers.  Eve didn’t think of the dangers of her disobedience; she was deceived. (1 Timothy 2:14)  We don’t reject because we are easily deceived by our own desires.  We can justify our actions until we believe our own justifications.  In other words, we can deceive ourselves.  We can’t fall for the world’s slogan, “If it feels good, do it!” because feeling good is not always obedience.  Do you reject the attraction of evil or do you justify?

As Followers of Christ we are called to love God and hate evil.  We can love God because He first loved us.  Because He loves us we can trust Him when He calls us to hate evil.  He knows what He’s talking about.  He loves so He will never do anything that will harm us nor does He call us to do anything He doesn’t equip us to do.  Our challenge is to know God, believe God, guard our hearts, and reject the attraction of evil.  He is trying to get our attention…are you listening?