Romans 12: Part 7
After telling us that love must be sincere, Paul continues by instructing us to A) hate what is evil and B) cling to what is good.
Hate Evil
It is important to note that Paul did not say "Hate those who are evil" or "Hate evil people". We are to hate evil THINGS/PRACTICES, not PEOPLE. Let us, as the Church, move away from the cliché of "hating the sin, loving the sinner", because the people doing the sin that we hate aren't picking up on the love part. They are just absorbing the hate, judgment, and condemnation we are throwing their way. To put it another way, we tend to identify other people by the way they sin. This is a thief, gambler, murderer, etc. When we do this, we are equating the sin and the sinner, making it impossible for us to hate the sin without also hating the person. We are boiling the entirety of a person down to the sin they have committed. That is the opposite of "loving our neighbor as ourselves".
When we look at the Bible, what kinds of evil should we hate? The first thing that comes to my mind is INJUSTICE and OPPRESSION. God is actively against injustice and oppression, so we should be against systems and acts that dehumanize, use, and belittle people. VIOLENCE is another clear kind of evil we should be against, particularly wielded against those on the margins of society. IDOLATRY is another frequent evil mentioned in the Bible. Anytime someone depends on or reveres someone or something instead of God, we are seeing idolatry in play.
The temptation is to pick on evils that we don't particularly struggle with. When we do this, we are attempting to disassociate with the people struggling with that sin. We are saying THEY ARE SINNING... as we gossip about them, or YOU ARE SINNING... as we condemn them to their faces. But instead we should be saying WE ARE SINNING...
Cling to Good
In our lives, it is not enough to just avoid the bad, we must actively embrace the good. The Church is good about preaching on the "sins of commission" (doing bad things), but we must also learn about the "sins of omission" (not doing good things). James 4:17 tells us that we know the good that we should be doing and yet don't do it, then we are sinning. So if the Holy Spirit nudges us to pay for someone's groceries and we refuse, then we have disobeyed and therefore sinned.
We can identify the good we should be clinging to, by looking at the inverse of the evil above. Instead of injustice, we must support JUSTICE. Instead of oppression, we need to work towards FREEDOM. Instead of violence, we should be agents of PEACE. Instead of idolatry, we choose to WORSHIP God as we turn to Him instead of systems, people, and things.
We can get ideas from Scripture about the good we should cling to: we can use the WHATEVERs in Philippians 4:8 and the FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT in Galatians 5:22-23 to tease out the good. If things are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy, then we should think about (and dare I add act on) these things. If things are training us to be more loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled, then they are good things.
Society is encouraging us to fear, distrust, and hate each other. We are fed this diet through the news and through social media, but we must choose to cling to what is good. If we read that line and thought, "Oh yeah, that's definitely true about my political opponents!", then we are missing the point. We need to "pull the plank out of your own eye" before trying to point out the problems with the others, even if they are our political opponents. This won't happen by accident or chance, but rather, we must actively choose to embrace the good.
Questions to Wrestle With
Take time this week to consider:
-Do you tend to hate people or hate things/practices?
-Have you used the cliché "hate the sin, love the sinner"?
-Have the people doing that particular sin felt your love?
-What kinds of things does the Bible say about injustice? Oppression? Violence? Idolatry?
-How do you struggle with these sins?
-How do you benefit from the systems that use these things against others for your benefit?
-What sins do you tend to condemn in others?
-What are sins that you struggle with?
-Do you tend to focus on avoiding the bad things or doing the good things?
-What sins of commission do you need to repent of?
-What sins of omission do you need to repent of?
-How can you cling to justice, freedom, peace, and worship?
-How does Philippians 4:8 and Ephesians 5:22-23 show us the good that we must cling to?
-How have you actively chosen to cling to what is good this day? This week? This year?
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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