Morning, June 7, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Hate evil, you who love the Lord.” — Psalm 97:10

You have good reason to “hate evil;” only consider what 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 Savior; it made you deaf so that you could not hear the Redeemer’s tender invitations. Sin turned your feet into the path of death and poured poison into the very fountain of your being; it tainted your heart, and made it “more deceitful than all else and desperately sick.” Oh, what a creature you were when evil had done its utmost with you, before divine grace intervened! You were an heir of wrath even as others; you “followed the masses in doing evil.” Such were all of us; but Paul reminds us, “you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” We have good reason, indeed, for hating evil when we look back and trace its deadly workings. Such mischief did evil do to us, so much so that our souls would have been lost had not omnipotent love intervened to redeem us. Even now it is an active enemy, always watching to do us harm, 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 thistles in your deathbed’s 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.” We know of no cure for the love of evil in a Christian like abundant interaction with the Lord Jesus. Dwell often 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.”