Message summary: Today may the Lord give us a resolute will to live a holy life, shun the wrong and do the right!

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“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good” (Romans 12:9). “Find out what pleases the Lord” (Ephesians 5:10). "For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life" (1 Thessalonians 4:7). “Abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:22). "He has saved us and called us to a holy life - not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace" (2 Timothy 1:9).

For about nine years we have attended a very large church that provides many ministries that we enjoy. But there are times we miss the folksiness and impromptu moments of a smaller church.

Once we had an older preacher named Milford Brubaker as our guest speaker in the small church we attended at the time. He had been in ministry for 53 years and still enjoyed getting out to preach. He had become legally blind and told us he had a hard time even seeing our faces in the congregation, but he was certain we were there. We commend his faithfulness. He preached an old-fashioned type message that we both appreciated.

Something he did, which seems to be a thing of the past, especially warmed our hearts when he spontaneously broke into an old chorus. Of course many of the younger people and those young in the faith had no idea what the lyrics were so they listened while the “old-timers”, which includes us, broke into song with Pastor Brubaker.

We sang an old song which I hadn’t heard for many, many years.

For many years we have enjoyed a "newer" song titled “God Will Make A Way” that has a similar message of assurance. But as we sang with Milford Brubaker this line caught my attention: “If I live a holy life, shun the wrong and do the right...”. It’s a message the people of God need to hear.

We join with those who hold God’s Word as a standard. His Word declares that there are people who do good and live upright and there are people who do evil and live godless lives. Our first daily text states, “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good”. The Psalmist wrote, “You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with You the wicked cannot dwell” (Psalm 5:4).

We are called to “hate what is evil”.  This can be misunderstood, so let me elaborate. We rightly acknowledge that love is a fundamental Christian virtue. Thus there is a tendency to believe that hate of any kind must be forbidden.

Yet the apostle Paul commands the early believers in Rome to “hate what is evil”.  In the early chapters of the book of Revelation the church in Ephesus was commended by Jesus for a specific hate which He also felt: “You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate” (Revelation 2:6).

The Scriptures are very clear: We are to hate evil. We are to hate evil practices such as the scourge of intoxicating alcohol and drugs, sexual immorality and other sins of the flesh. We are to hate the vile pornographic industry which has snared scores of men and women in its pernicious grip thereby destroying families and increasing sexual crimes. We are to hate evil religious systems which lead people to hell. 

However we are to be agents of God’s love and truth to those who are entangled in these horrific evils. They’re among the people Christ died for. From each of these backgrounds there are scores and scores of people who’ve come to trust in Jesus Christ, repented of their sin, and are now our brothers and sisters in the true faith. Just consider a word regarding the redeemed who had come out of a life of sin in 1 Corinthians 6, “such were some of you” (v.11).

We are also “to cling to what is good”. Hating evil and clinging to good will surely include a strong stand for that which is truth which includes calling good, good and evil, evil. Let’s not invent new words to soften old definitions reflecting the permissive times we live in, such as “love affair” which sounds more like the words from a romantic novel than a command that forbids adultery, or redefining marriage from the clear Scriptural pattern established by God and the list goes on. A powerful verse states, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20).

Today may the Lord give us a resolute will to live a holy life, to shun the wrong and do the right!

Be encouraged today!  Hebrews 3:13