In Psalms, chapter one hundred and nineteen, verse hundred and thirteen, is a scripture that declares to a believer that it’s impossible to love God’s Word without hating evil, as in the theme, verse hundred and fifteen, hundred and nineteen, hundred and twenty-eight, and maintaining a holy and reverent fear of God and His judgments.
It is not enough for the children of God to love righteousness. They must also hate evil. The evidence is clear in Christ’s devotion to righteousness, as in Isaiah eleven, verse five, and His hatred of iniquity in His life, ministry, and death. Christ’s faithfulness to the Father while on earth, as demonstrated by His love of righteousness and hatred of wickedness, is the basis for God’s anointing of His Son. In the same way, our anointing will come as we identify with our Master’s attitude toward righteousness and evil, as in Psalms forty-five, verse seven.
A fundamental characteristic of the wicked is that they love darkness: the pleasure in sin and immorality. On the other hand, genuinely born-again persons love righteousness and hate wickedness and grieving when they see the unrighteous deeds of depraved people, as in First Corinthians thirteen, verse six. They take no pleasure in the sensual entertainment of the expression of sinful conduct shown so openly in contemporary society.
The New Testament clearly states that such persons will not inherit the kingdom of God, as in First Corinthians six, verses nine through ten. People cannot be saved and simultaneously live immoral lives. To hate what God hates is an essential characteristic of those loyal to Christ, as in Psalms hundred and thirty-nine, verse twenty-one. The choice is good or bad, light or darkness, the Broadway or the narrow, for there is no in-between. Do you hate vain thoughts or the law?