What Love Hates
The other day, as I was flipping through the channels of the TV, I was impressed with the domination of programs filled with violence, crime, greed and lustful, sexual infidelity. Even the documentary and history channels concentrated on dangerous animals, greedy prospectors and scary, mystical phenomena. Evil attracts the attention of the masses and is what sells. Instead of being repudiated by sin, most are attracted to it. As a result of this daily consumption of evil content, our society has become hardened and indifferent to it’s poisonous effect on our soul. We have become tolerant of it, rather than disgusted with it. Instead of hating sin, we accept it as normal in today’s world. God, forever hates sin, yet, at the same time, intensely loves the sinner.
In I Corinthians 13.6, it says: “Loves does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.” For evil to become attractive, truth must become subject to personal scrutiny and individual choice. Paul told the Church in Rome that with the digression of society, truth would be exchanged for a lie and that they would serve their own interests, (creation), rather than the Creator. (Romans 1.25) The changing of language is a vehicle used to harden the conscience against truth. For example, instead of abortion as being the killing of an unborn baby, it is seen as the termination of a pregnancy, the unborn child as a fetus, and instead of the child having the right to live, the woman has the right over her body. This is just one example of the many ways man has used a lie to justify evil. Hitler used this method in villainizing the Jews to justify his final solution; being their extinction. Slavery was promoted by Christian Europe, by considering the African to be sub-human and cursed by God. Truth must be exchanged for a lie for sin to abound.
Love does not tolerate sin, but rather exposes and hates sin. Tolerance of sin removes any negative consequence of sin. The Bible is very clear on this subject. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 3.21) God, in His infinite love for mankind, does not desire any one to perish, but for all to come to repentance. (II Peter 3.9) He does not shut His eyes to evil, but frees those who are slaves to it. Because God is love, He hates divorce and the hurt it causes to the family of those involved. Because God is love, He hates hypocrisy, corruption and pride that destroys the integrity and value of man. Because God is love, He hates sexual abuse and perversion, that leaves a life-time of scares and damages to the victim’s self-worth and identity. God hates violence and punishes those who practice it.
Sin is “missing the mark”. (Greek meaning of the word) Sin causes one to fall short of the good God desires man to achieve. Sin, though seemingly to be pleasurable for a time, brings destruction to all involved. It is a destroyer of good, a thief of the best and a murderer of eternal life. (John 10.10) If you love, you will be patient and kind. You will not want your own way and will not be arrogant or rude. You will consider others as more important than yourself and protect them from all evil. Love promotes generosity, believes the best and rejoices in the truth. Love gets involved in helping the victims of sin and bringing the perpetrators of sin to justice. As the Good Samaritan went out of his way to help the victim of sin, so must we. Love hates sin. Love frees those enslave to it and heals those wounded by it.
Scriptures to meditate on:
Prov. 6.16-19; Ps. 119.104; Mal. 2.16; Amos 5.15; Rom. 7.15; I Cor. 13.4-7