Today’s Reading, Proverbs 7-9
Focal Scripture: Proverbs 8:13 “To fear the Lord is to hate evil. I hate arrogant pride, evil conduct, and perverse speech.”
What do you hate in your life? I know some people who read this will say “As believers we shouldn’t have hate in our lives or in our mouth.” However, we know that we do have hate for certain things that we run across. For instance I know several people who hate snakes. I don’t mean dislike, I mean hate them with a passion. I know other people who hate people who lie in conversations. The point is that you might not hate a person but you do hate something.
In today’s reading Solomon is telling us one thing that we all should hate as believers, evil. We should hate it more than we hate anything else. Evil ruins relationships and it destroys people. Evil is the root of every problem because it is worse than any disease. Evil destroys and corrupts a persons soul. So why does Solomon feel the need to address it in his writing to his son? Because he is a witness on how people and the nation can comprise evil and justify it in their own lives and the life of them as a nation.
The challenge I have for you today is to hate evil the way God does and don’t tolerate it at all. This means in your own life and also in the lives of others. I want to be clear here when you are dealing with other people that you can hate the evil acts they do but we shouldn’t hate them as people. Lost people will act like lost people. We can love them and respectfully show them truth. However, we don’t justify their evil action or choices.
The same goes for saved people, because we know that you and I are prone to evil actions. The problem is that we can’t let it go or justify these issues. Especially in the fellowship of believers. I have seen to many churches and people in leadership make excuses for evil actions and never truly deal with them. The evil is tolerated and never biblically addressed. Far too often leaders are afraid to address the evil acts of others because of action or choices they themselves have committed.
So what is the solution? We must learn to think and treat evil the way God does in our lives. We must pull it out from the stem and before we can do that in others we must first do that in ourselves. So I challenge you today to examine your heart and expose any evil thought, action, or vice that has you in its grasp. It’s time we treat evil the way God does in his actions.
So if your gossip, root it out. If your angry, root it out. If you always want what others have, call it evil and surrender your thinking. Do you have poor speech with others? Give it to the Lord. Ask the Lord to reveal to you anything that keeps you from being fully committed to him every day of your life.
It’s ok to hate evil. We need this mindset to help ourselves grow and the church grow. However, while we hate evil we must learn to give a solution to those who are struggling. Condemnation without an answer leaves no hope and we know that our God gives everyone hope.
Tomorrow, I plan on reading Proverbs 10-12
