Today's encouragement comes from Psalm 139:21 & 22, where we read these heady words:
"Do I not hate them, O LORD, who hate You? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my ene-mies."All true lovers of God are also true haters of all demons and humans who hate God. One of the reasons the Lord is not well-loved by many professing Christians today is because they do not hate His enemies. Of course, hate is not our principal driving force. Regenerate Christians are first and foremost lovers: lovers of Christ, His church, His gospel, and the world God created (including unregenerate persons within it).
Therefore, we are to both love and hate at the same time—and sometimes, with regard to the same person. But to do so is simply to follow God’s lead: He loves the redeemed church; He hates the reprobate; and (in a certain sense) He both loves and hates those elect persons He *will* save, but has not *yet* done so.
[Puritan quote of the day: "He who does not know the evil of sin as fully as he ought cannot hate it as much as he should.” —Nathaniel Vincent, in, "A Dis-course concerning Love"]
