Christian living is not mere choosing. It is choosing with intensity: Abhor what is evil, embrace what is good.

4. Objective Moral Good Is Good for Us, and Objective Moral Evil Is Bad for Us

I see this mainly in the relationship between the two halves of this verse. First, verse 9 says, “Let love be genuine.” And then, without starting a new sentence (in the original Greek), it goes on to say, “abhorring what is evil; holding fast to what it good.” The link between the command to love and the command to abhor evil and embrace good is very close. It looks as if Paul is saying something essential about love.

Everyone agrees that love means, at least, doing things for people that are good for them, not bad for them. So when Paul says, “Let love be genuine, abhorring the evil and embracing the good,” I take him to mean that it will be loving thing to do if we abhor the evil and embrace the good. Which means that what God calls evil must be bad for people, and what God calls good must be good for people.

It’s not the other way around. We don’t decide what is good for people and what is bad for people and then define love that way. God decides what is good and what is bad and we follow that and call it love, because what God says is good is good for people, and what God says is bad is bad for people.

You can see this very clearly in 1 John 5:2. John writes, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.” How do you know you are loving people? By loving God and keeping his commandments. His commandments are the expression of objective good. And his prohibitions are the expression of objective evil. And therefore objective evil is bad for people, and objective good is good for people.

But let’s be explicitly Christian. The ultimate objective good is the God-Man, Christ himself. He is our good. And so you can see most clearly that the ultimate objective good is good for us. Nothing is better for us than Christ. He is infinitely good and infinitely good for us. In him the good and the good-for-us become perfectly one. All other good things are good for us indirectly. They are good for us because they lead us to him. He alone is the good which is directly and supremely good for us.

Which leads us now to the fifth and last observation.

5. Genuine Love Must Hate

If there were a universe in which there was no evil that hurt people or dishonored Christ, there would be only love and no hate. There would be nothing to hate. But in a world like ours it is necessary not only that we love and hate, but that our love include hate.

Paul says, “Let love be genuine, abhorring what is evil.” One commentator calls this abhorring “an intense inward rejection.” It is rejection. It is inward. It is intense. And my point is that in this world love has to feel hate for evil. Since evil hurts people and dishonors God, you can’t claim to love people while coddling evil.

Don’t make the mistake of saying: the evil I cherish only hurts me, and so it is not unloving to others. That’s absolutely false (see 1 John 5:2 above). You were made to display the worth of Christ to others. That is what is good for them. That’s what it means to love them. But if you do things to yourself that damage your delight in Christ and your display of Christ, you sin against others and not just yourself. You rob them of what God made you to give them.

So I say again, love for others must hate evil. Because evil hurts others directly, and evil hurts others indirectly by hurting you. Evil obscures the beauty of Christ. And Christ is our greatest good. Our greatest joy.

Conclusion

As Christmas approaches and you think of gifts, remember one of the greatest gifts now and to the next generation is to believe and teach the simple, straightforward Word of God. “Abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good.” Oh, what a world of precious truth there is in those words. And the sum of all truth and all good, and the triumph over all evil is Christ. So this advent season, hold fast to Christ, and abhor everything that dishonors him.

© Desiring God 2004. Used with permission. See original sermon manuscript here.

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Desiring God.