 By James H. Cagle |
“Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows” (Hebrews 1: 9 KJV).
God loves and hates (John 3: 16; 2 Thess. 2: 16; Titus 3: 4; 2 Cor. 9: 7; Rev. 3: 19; Prov. 6: 16). Man is made in the image of God with a personality that includes: intellect, self-will, self-determination, and the ability to love and hate what he chooses.
Jesus Christ in His incarnation “loved righteousness, and hated iniquity” and was blessed by God the Father for doing so. And His life was a reflection of His love and hate.
What we love and hate is a reflection of what we are and determines what we will become. What we love we are gravitating toward and becoming more like and what we hate we’re separating ourselves from.
Love and hate are not mere sentiments of good or bad feelings toward things or persons but rational intelligent choices that we make voluntarily.
Man is, because of his innate sinful nature, born with a hatred for righteousness and a love for iniquity (Jn. 3: 19). Man must be born-again, at which time he receives the nature of Christ, before he can begin to make the choice to love righteousness and hate iniquity (Rom. 7: 14-23). Whereas, before he was saved, he hated the good and loved the evil (Mic. 3:2). Once getting saved, a man hates the evil and loves the good (Amos 5: 15). In this we see that love is a moral choice.
What we love will oppose what we hate. For our love and hate to effectively transform us, we must love and hate fully and completely. We cannot be fickle, or half hearted. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Mt. 22: 37). And, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world” (1 John 2: 15). And, “Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold. Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way” (Ps. 119: 127, 128).
The Bible (KJV) directs the Christians to love righteousness and hate iniquity. And by following these directives he will become holy and more like Christ. It is only as our love for Christ grows that we become more like Him. The reason we are not like Him and are more like the world is because we love the world more than we do Him.
We cannot truly love Jesus and become like the world. We cannot truly love the world and become like Jesus. We may say we love Jesus with all our heart but our likeness to the world belies us.
