Hate what is evil and cling to what is good

(Excerpts from Sunday A.M. sermon, "what the world needs most from men" and Wednesday N The Word from Mark 7)

Psalm 97:10 NIV Let those who love the LORD hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

We need to hate what is evil! Hate is a strong word. It is helpful to talk about hating what is evil because we are so apathetic. Why do we not see outrage at social issues that are clearly evil? We have accepted the evil that is within our hearts. We do not despise it. It does not grieve us or make us sick. Since we have accepted evil in our own hearts we rationalize it away as normal in our family, our city, our state, our nation, our world.

The problem with this tolerance of evil in ourselves and our culture is that evil never stays in a box. Evil always gives birth to even greater evil. This is what Jesus was teaching us in Matthew 5 when He teaches us that those who are angry with their brother have committed murder in their hearts.

The same motivation that makes us cheat on our taxes is what makes someone take a bribe so that someone gets murdered. The same motivation that makes us lose our temper with our spouse is what makes people fight and kill. The same motivation that makes us lust after another woman is what drives people to turn young children into sex slaves. It may seem like a big jump but Jesus taught us that evil never stays confined .... it grows like a cancer.

For this reason Godly men and women need to despise what is evil in themselves and in the world around them. Their disgust and passion against evil should be strong enough to move them to action that limits the evil that is tolerated. How much cancer would we tolerate if our doctor showed us a tumor? How much would we tolerate in our family?

Here are some social issues that I see Godly people too silent about.

Crime, violence, sodomy, and a general lawlessness that pervades the U.S. prison system.

The general impotence of anyone to come up with a lawful solution to the illegal immigration issue. It could be easily stopped if you fined and put in prison every company that dared to hire an illegal. Beyond that the immigrants are vilified when it is the politicians and U.S. companies that are just as big a problem.

Abortion - enough said.

I could go on, but there is a general lack of interest in confronting anything evil. Those that do are often stigmatized and labeled fanatics. Where is the hatred of what is evil and the passion to sacrifice to see that it is driven back into a corner instead of tolerated and rationalized?

In Jesus Name

Jarrett Jamieson