You have good reason to hate evil! Just consider what harm it has already done to you. Oh, what a world of mischief sin has brought into your heart! Sin blinded you so you couldn't see the beauty of your Savior. It made you deaf so you couldn't hear the Redeemer's tender invitations. Sin turned your feet toward death and poured poison into the very fountain of your being. It tainted your heart, making it "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked."

Oh, what a creature you were when evil had done its utmost, before divine grace stepped in! You were an heir of wrath, just like everyone else. You ran with the multitude to do evil. That's what we all were. But Paul reminds us: "But you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God."

We have good reason indeed for hating evil when we look back and trace its deadly workings. Evil worked such mischief in us that our souls would have been lost had not omnipotent love intervened to redeem us. Even now it remains an active enemy, ever watching to do us harm, ever trying to drag us to perdition.

Therefore hate evil, O Christians—unless you desire trouble! If you would strew your path with thorns and plant nettles in your death-pillow, then neglect to hate evil. But if you would live a happy life and die a peaceful death, then walk in all the ways of holiness, hating evil even to the end.

If you truly love your Savior and would honor him, then hate evil! I know of no cure for the love of evil in a Christian like abundant intercourse with the Lord Jesus. Dwell much with him, and it is impossible for you to be at peace with sin.

"Order my footsteps by your Word, And make my heart sincere; Let sin have no dominion, Lord, But keep my conscience clear."