According to this passage wisdom should bring us to this place where we fear God properly. The description here is that the fear of God is the hatred of evil. Ponder that for a moment.
When you look at your life and the world around you, do you hate evil? Or do we just try to not do evil? Or do we try and stay away or abstain from evil? What does it mean to hate evil anway?
To hate evil should mean that evil causes us to be enraged. Evil should cause us to be upset and even angry, not in a way that dishonours God, but in a way that burns with the righteousness that we find in Jesus. Our hate of evil is not to be a negative anger that identifies us and makes us look like the very thing we detest. Rather this hate is to be an intense passion for righteousness and the Glory of God.
We hate evil because as a Christian Jesus, God the Son Himself, by the power of the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in us. So the very things that God hates, we should hate. This indwelling of us is how we are to be continually challenged to grow, to cast off things that draw us away from God, to repent of our sin, to seek righteousness in life, to hate sin, etc...
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:1 ESV)
Christians are no longer enemies of God, rather through the person and work of Jesus we are at peace with God. The reality is that there is no neutral zone with God, we are either at peace with Him or at war with Him. So if we are at peace with God then we are to begin to think and see things His way. So we should not tolerate evil, certainly it should not be tolerated within those who claim to be followers of God. So what is God's response to sin?
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 ESV)
Sin, evil in the sight of God, earns a penalty of eternal death. But God is full of love, grace, mercy and so much more and so we have been given an answer for sin, to stop evil. Only God can put an end to evil.
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:7, 8 ESV)
The sinfulness of humanity is evil and people who love sin instead of God exist as evil people. As those in Christ Jesus, we are to love God, fear God, hate sin, despise evil, and in the instruction we have received we are to show the love God has shown to us to those who are known as His enemies. This is why a proper fear of God should bring about the message of the Gospel.
So if you fear God, hate evil, share the solution in the Gospel and live the example showing that you are at peace with God and as such pursue righteousness and detest evil. Our hate of evil is to be shown most in our desire to see people rescued from the evil we see.
Pastor Bruce
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