Loving God is not just about singing praise on Sunday, it means becoming an enemy of evil

Over the past few weeks, God has been revealing some amazing scriptures that show what it means to truly love him, and they not only revolve around honoring him in every area of our lives, but show we are to reject and hate evil just as he does–not an insignificant achievement!

What Does It Mean To Truly Love God And Others?

Since we picked up the Bible, everyone is aware we are instructed in both the OT and NT to love God and each other:

Deuteronomy 6:5
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength

Leviticus 19:18
Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD

Luke 10:27
He answered: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ ; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’”

Even though it is no secret we are supposed to “love” God and others, what does that instruction actually mean?

Apart from receiving God’s love, forgiveness, and mercy with gratitude, happiness, and joy, loving God in return means honoring him with obedience, respect, passion, and sincere affection

But in order to love God as he wants, we must understand how the Bible describes those who love him:

Psalm 97:10
Let those who love the LORD hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked

Romans 12:9
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good

Amos 5:15
Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts

Proverbs 8:13
To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech

In the OT verses above, the word “hate” means “become an enemy of” in Hebrew, so we are not only supposed to just not like sin, or even resist it, we are supposed to become an enemy of it, and in Romans, it means to “hate, be in horror of”

So when translated, the verses above are actually saying:

Psalm 97:10
Let those who love the LORD [become an enemy of] evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked

Romans 12:9
Love must be sincere. [Hate, and be horrified by] what is evil; cling to what is good

That casts a different light on when we entertain temptation, or stumble and sin, doesn’t it?

We Sin Because We Want To, Without Always Paying Attention To How It Hurts God Or Affects Our Relationship

James taught that sin is motivated by our own evil desires within us, and we can all attest that temptation is called “temptation” for a reason, ie: sin is desirable in some way or another, otherwise we would stop it immediately and without question

James 1:14-15
…each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death

Simply put, if the enemy is able to tempt us by toying with our “evil desires”, it means we are not an enemy of sin in that area, and, whether we are doing it consciously or not, we are not loving God as he instructed us to

Humbling!

Regardless of how far God has transformed our lives, we must keep our focus on his instruction that we are to become evil’s enemy as part of showing our love for him–the thought of this is staggering, especially when we honestly reflect on the areas of our lives that need work

On top of this, we are told our sin and desire for the world can separate us from God, and actually cause us to become his enemy rather than an enemy of evil!

Isaiah 59:2
But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear

James 4:4
You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God

Yikes!

Those are some strong statements, and they back up when Jesus said that if we are not for him, we are against him as there is no middle ground in the war between light and darkness

Matthew 12:30
He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters

Revelation 3:16
So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth

Now that we understand God’s call to love him by hating evil and becoming its enemy, why is this so important to pursue in our lives?

God Gave Us The Freedom To Choose Life Or Death By Accepting Love Or Rejecting It

To fully understand the importance of Jesus’ teaching that we should love God and our neighbor, let’s look again at the passage in Luke quoted above in more detail:

Luke 10:25-28
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live”

Well okay!

This is just like how the OT instructs us to love God by letting go of sin and fully turning to God, for the very same purpose:

Deuteronomy 30:6
The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live

The Bible is pretty clear on the subject!

God is always willing to forgive us when we turn to him with sincerity, but truly loving God is evolving past that familiar cycle of sin/forgiveness/intimacy/weakness/sin/forgiveness/etc…, it means to love God so much we hate evil and become its enemy, having zero tolerance for it in our lives

This means not listening to temptation when it comes knocking, and pushing back on it as if our lives depended on it–would we want to stand in front of God and answer for why we kept listening and following after temptation repeatedly even though we knew it was wrong?

I certainly don’t!

Learning To Hate Evil Is A Process

Without a doubt we are stronger in some areas than others, and we already hate some types of evil, while we are a little more “relaxed” about others, so we must be conscious of the fact that we are works in progress, and maintain a desire to strive for greater righteousness and love

Just as God’s love is steadfast and unchanging, he gave us his very same spirit, enabling us to overcome sin and temptation in the same powerful and steadfast way, we just have to do our part and stand firm, resisting sin so the enemy, who is powerless against God, flees from us!

1 Peter 5:8-9
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings

James 4:7
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you

And remember, we all face temptations that are appealing to us as even Jesus faced temptation as a man, so do not hide from this, but when it comes, instead of listening to it or being ashamed and not asking God for help, rebuke those temptations in the name of Jesus and cry out to God asking for strength–if we do this with sincerity, the enemy will run away!

Do not just try to resist sin on your own, the enemy cringes at the very name of Jesus, so use your most powerful weapon in the war against sin!

Knowing that the enemy almost always attacks our weaknesses, once we start practicing our ability to resist sin, the enemy’s attempts to lure us into darkness will backfire in their faces as we will just look at the temptation and offer it up to God rather than entertain it–temptation will literally act like a beacon, drawing attention to areas we need to seek God’s healing and strength in

To effectively fight temptation like this, it means not “innocently” listening to temptation, or doing things and thinking “I know I can ask for forgiveness later”, let alone ignoring our consciences when they scream at us that something is wrong, it means truly standing firm in the face of temptation and saying:

“No way, I will not sin, I love God more than that!”

Look again at what Paul wrote about love, he said “love must be sincere”, meaning that we must truly love, not just say that we do, and that sincerity will express itself through genuine distaste towards evil!

Romans 12:9
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good

So remember, some things are harder to let go of, but just as James said above, we must submit ourselves to God, trusting that his will and character are better for us than anything the world has to offer, just remember to always ask God why something is a source of temptation, and that he reveal how to pray for healing and strength–pick yourself up after a stumble and keep fighting!

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