Yad Vashem is the name of the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. I vividly recall standing in the cavern dedicated to approximately 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Nazis, weeping as I heard their names being spoken softly. Their memorial lights sparkled like stars in the night sky. My heart flew 6,000 miles to where my own children were, and I grieved for all these little lives lost.
Would you find it strange if I told you we must have love for children but at the same time be tolerant of the horrific acts perpetrated against them?
I know the summum bonum of our modern world is tolerance, but a Christian is supposed to look to Jesus, not society, for moral guidance.
Here’s a quote about Him, especially forceful because it’s His Father speaking. “To the Son He says: ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You….’” (Hebrews 1:8-9)
You can see the two reasons why the Father selected His Son to rule the universe. First, because He loves what’s right. But second, because He hates what’s evil.
So evidently there is such a thing as holy hatred. Good gardeners must not only love flowers; they must also hate weeds. But here lies the challenge for the Christian.
On one side, we’re told, “You who love the Lord, hate evil!” (Psalm 97:10)
On the other hand, Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good.” (Matthew 5:43-45)
So how do we do both? Are we supposed to “hate evil”? Apparently so! But does God make “His sun rise on the evil”? Yes, that too.
There’s no contradiction. God shows amazing love and longsuffering grace to evil people while at the same time hating the evil they do. You know how this works. Many broken-hearted people today desperately care about their loved ones in the death-grip of opioids, and at the same time abominate the evil forces destroying them.
One clear sign that Western Christianity has lost its grip is the way we feel we can pick what to obey from the Bible. The seemingly antiquated idea of “the fear of the Lord” has been replaced by “the fear of the crowd.” The fear of the Lord means we take Him seriously in everything He says. If we don’t, no wonder the world no longer takes us seriously.
The pivot point in Christianity is the Cross. There on Calvary’s hill the infinite love of God for sinners and His infinite wrath against our sin met. For those who would accept Christ as their substitute and sin-bearer, God found a way to condemn our sin (Romans 8:3) without condemning the sinner. (Romans 8:1) Old-time Christians right about here would shout “Hallelujah!”
“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” (Romans 12:9, ESV)
Article by Jabe Nicholson first published in the Commercial Dispatch, Saturday, September 9, 2023