October 23 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Psalm 97:7–12

Devotional

You have good reason to “hate evil.” Just consider what harm it has already done you. Oh, what a world of mischief sin has brought into your heart! Sin blinded you so that you could not see the beauty of the Saviour. It made you deaf so that you could not hear the Redeemer's tender invitations. Sin turned your feet into the way of death. It poured poison into the very fountain of your being. Sin tainted your heart and made it “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9). Oh, what a creature you were when evil had done its utmost with you, before God’s grace interposed! You were an heir of wrath even as others. You did “follow the crowd in doing wrong” (Ex. 23:2). Such was each of us. But Paul reminds us, “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11).

We have good reason, indeed, to hate evil when we look back and trace its deadly workings. Such mischief did evil do us that our souls would have been lost if God’s omnipotent love had not interfered to redeem us. Even now it is an active enemy, ever watching to do us hurt, and to drag us to perdition.

Therefore “hate evil,” O Christians, unless you want trouble. If you want to cover your path with thorns and plant thistles in your death-pillow, then neglect to “hate evil.” But if you want to live a happy life and die a peaceful death, then walk in all the ways of holiness, hating evil, even to the end. If you truly love your Saviour and would honour him, then “hate evil.” We know of no cure for the love of evil in a Christian like abundant interaction with the Lord Jesus. Dwell a great deal with him, and it will be impossible for you to be at peace with sin.

“Order my footsteps by thy Word,
and make my heart sincere;
let sin have no dominion, Lord,
but keep my conscience clear.”
(Isaac Watts, from the hymn, “O That the Lord Would Guide My Ways”)

[June 7, morning]

Extracted from C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening (public domain), language modernized by Larry E. Wilson.