Morning, June 7

“O you who love the LORD, hate evil!” Psalm 97:10

You have good reason to “hate evil,”just consider the harm it has already brought you. Oh, what a world of mischief sin has brought into your heart! Sin blinded you so that you could not see the beauty of the Saviour; it made you deaf so that you could not hear the Redeemer’s tender invitations. Sin turned your feet into the way of death, and poured poison into the very fountain of your being; it tainted your heart, and made it “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Oh, what a creature you were when evil had done its utmost, before divine grace intervened! You were an heir of wrath even as others; you knew no better but to “run with the multitude to do evil.” Such were all of us; 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 did such mischief to us, that our souls would have been lost had not omnipotent love interfered to redeem us. Even now it is an active enemy, ever watching to do us hurt, and 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 unto the end. If you truly love your Saviour, and would honour him, then “hate evil.” We know of no cure for the love of evil in a Christian like abundant communion with the Lord Jesus. Dwell much with him, and it is impossible for you to be at peace with sin.

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