“Ye that love the LORD, hate evil,” Psalm 97:10.
The custodians of ‘Political Correctness’ have arrogantly laid down rules of thought and behaviour that really have rewritten the social and moral code of right and wrong. It is now perceived to be utterly wrong to declare oneself against practices and attitudes that not so long ago were considered odious.
On the other hand it is totally unacceptable to a growing number within society, led by the nose by the gurus of correct thinking and opinions, to view and speak of as detestable, those things and views which heretofore were respectable and most fitting for they were based upon the teaching of God’s Word, the Bible.
The text of Holy Scripture at the start of the article teaches what is right in the eyes of God on this whole controversy.
I. WHERE THERE IS TRUE LOVE THERE WILL BE HATRED!
It is impossible to both love the Lord and also to love evil. There are many today who would claim that they do. In that they display either ignorance or hypocrisy or both!
The recent controversy within the ranks of the DUP has brought forth opinions that indicate that it is most wrong to be opposed to that which God’s Word deems ‘abominable’! I speak of the various perversions that are embraced, promoted and defended by the ‘LGBT’ (and whatever other initials that are almost daily added to this acronym) community and its sympathisers.
It has become obvious that the DUP, once the forceful opponent of sodomy in all its forms, is now riddled with proponents of this evil lifestyle and those who are prepared to remain silent before the advance of it being embraced within the body politic of the DUP!
This new ‘breed’ of ‘DUPer’ has been heard lately denouncing any who hold to the old views of that which they, most shamefully, have espoused and who virtuously proclaim themselves as acting in the highest form of love and kindness in defending those who designate themselves as ‘sodomites’ or one of its many allied definitions.
It may well be easy for some to try and turn on its head the norm of moral thinking of bygone years and seek to instigate a new moral and social yardstick which is the very opposite! Easy it may seem but it cannot be done without defying God and His eternal truth.
I read the text at the head of this article this morning but I also read Isaiah chapter 40. Verse 8 of that chapter states: “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever,” Isaiah 40:8. Amen to that truth!
The opinions of those, such as Mrs Lindsay Robinson, wife of DUP MP, Gavin Robinson, who have shown sympathy with today’s perversions and ‘pro-choice’ abortion groups, who recently said that the Bible was “only one source of theology”, are but the withering flower and grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow has gone!
We cannot love God without hating evil. That is a truth demonstrated in nature.
You cannot love freedom without hating oppression and slavery. Nations have fought wars to preserve freedom and put down tyranny.
A love of cleanliness is the companion of a hatred of defilement and filth! We may learn that from the cat!
The Bible teaches us that “this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous,” 1 John 5:3. A love for God is epitomised in an obeying of His Law which is the embodiment of all that is holy and opposed to evil.
Those who profess to be Christians and who berate those who hate the perversions that are flooding society today, are deceivers and no followers of Christ and His Word. Sadly, the professing church is permeated with such and their voices are heard above all others, giving the impression that they alone speak for Christ and His people.
So it is today in politics and the DUP, in its pursuit of votes and acceptance, is permitting such voices to be heard, giving the impression that such is representative of the ‘new’ DUP.
If that is the new DUP, then it is doomed to perish for none can defy God and thrive!
II. IN TRUTH, A HATRED OF EVIL IS PROOF OF A TRUE LOVE OF GOD
The Lord Jesus commended the church at Ephesus for its ‘hatred’ of the deeds of the Nicolaitans, a wicked perversion. “But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” Revelation 2:6. To hate such was in keeping with Christ’s attitude. It was but to share His hatred of such.
The Nicolaitans were a sect which embraced debauched behaviour and called it holy. How like the modern cult of the followers of sodomy! Its deeds are to be hated if we are to be true in our love to the Lord.
How wrong are those who claim to be Christians to love that which Christ hates.
Of course, these ‘pillars of Biblical Christianity’ would have us believe that Christ is not in the least offended by the ways of the sodomite! This leaves them with the problem of explaining the words of the Lord as recorded in Genesis 13:13. “But the men of Sodom [were] wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.” It was their perverse lifestyle that caused the Lord to term them so and to bring down His fiery judgment upon them as stated by Peter. “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned [them] with an overthrow, making [them] an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly,” 2 Peter 2:6. What happened back then is an example or pattern of that which will befall all embrace this wickedness.
Where is God’s love toward such in this demonstrated stance by Him toward sodomy?
III. CONVERSELY, A LOVE FOR OR A SYMPATHETIC DEFENCE OF EVIL PROCLAIMS LOUDLY AN ABSENCE OF A TRUE LOVE FOR THE LORD!
If the Lord commands us to ‘hate evil’, and He does, and we respond by loving and sympathising and eulogising it, what does that say of our attitude toward the Lord? It can only say love that which He hates and therefore hate Him!
In the second Commandment, we read the following: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me,” Exodus 20:4-5.
Here we have the Lord calling for obedience to His law forbidding making graven images, bowing down to such or serving them. He then says that such that reject this commandment and worship graven images are those that ‘hate him’! Such will be visited by God’s judgment.
That ought to be enough to make any foolishly deceived and carried away with the ‘pretended love’ that is associated with the defenders of perversion, to repent and reject the folly they have been deceived by and prove themselves true believers by rejecting their former error and yield to God’s definition of that which before they considered ‘good’ and see it for what it is, ‘evil’ and hate it as does God.
Such who hate evil are in step, in harmony, in agreement with the God of heaven. Who cares about that which is ‘politically correct’ when we are in the company and fellowship of God!
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
8th June 2021.