Monday, June 27, 2011

Do You Hate Evil?

All those who profess Christ as their Lord and Savior should hate evil. How many don't? Could this be the reason so many professing Christians, those who proclaim they are truly born again, do not meet the test of 1 John 2:6, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” (NKJV)?

I think the answer to the question is frightening. Someone who says he or she abides in Christ and does not hate evil is not a Christian. And, the first thing, the VERY first thing many immediately jump to is that I am “expecting sinless perfection.”

Let me go on record: I am not talking about sinless perfection. First of all, that false doctrine is not biblical, and secondly, the sinless perfection accusation seems to always be the last ditch effort of someone unable to handle the argument. In fact, when Jesus taught His disciples to pray, he told them to pray to the Father: “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:14 NKJV). Christ and evil do not mix, do not go hand in hand, and those who do not reject evil as a way of life are not Christians!

If you are truly regenerated, born again, by the Spirit of God then the inclination or bent of your life should be one that hates evil. That is how Christ walked. He hated evil. He died to conquer evil. What's your excuse?

Think of what evil did to you when you were born into this world. You were not only born with an evil, sinful nature but you were also conceived in sin (Psalms 51:5). Your innate evil nature made you unable to hear, understand, or respond to the claims of Jesus Christ revealed in the Gospel (Romans 3:10-18; Ephesians 2:1-10; Romans 8:7; Colossians 1:21; James 1:14, 15; Matthew 15:19).

"But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14)

Note the phrase: “...nor can he know them...” the man born into evil has not even the ability, to exercise himself Godward. This is what evil has done to the human race.

So evil were we, in fact, that in order for God to get through to us with His Gospel, the Son of God had to become the God-Man, die on a cross for sin, resurrect, and ascend to His royal place at the right hand of the Throne of God (Ephesians 1:19-22). Then, while we were yet dead in our sins and could not—unable to know the things of God (1 Corinthians 2:14), God had to draw us to the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (John 6:44). We could not come otherwise. Then God had to, while we were still dead and unable to come to Christ, make us alive in Christ, saving us by His Grace:

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),” (Ephesians 2:1-5)

Tell me, is this not reason enough to hate evil?


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