Loving the Evil

4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

If we were told that we were to spend a day dwelling on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent and worthy of praise, would not our reaction be to say to ourselves, "BORING!!!"? This reaction, common to man, says a lot about us.

The problem is that we don’t love the good. We love the evil. We would rather read about a scandal than about a conversion. Even when we don’t act out evil deeds, we still enjoy hearing and talking about them.

Loving evil is what sin is all about. It’s not just doing wrong things, it’s having a heart affection for what is wicked. And even the most righteous among us have in them a love of evil. (In fact, the most righteous among us are the ones who know best that in their flesh they are lovers of evil.)

God wants to transform us into people who love what is good and who abhor what is evil (Rom.12:9). But that is never going to happen until we first admit to ourselves and to our God that in our flesh we are lovers of evil. We will never escape from sin except by repentance; it is God’s way of deliverance. And repentance includes confession. It means agreeing with God that not only have we done wrong things, but we have loved doing wrong things. It means admitting to God that not only have we lived a corrupt life, but that we have a corrupt heart, a heart that loves corruption. This kind of excruciating honesty before God is the key that opens the floodgates to the oceans of His grace: "God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble." (James 4:6) And it is the first step toward loving what is good and hating what is evil.

"The one who desires life, to love and see good days, Must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit . He must turn away from evil and do good ; He must seek peace and pursue it . For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous , And His ears attend to their prayer , But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." (1Pet.3:10-12)

Great God of mercy, I am a man with a foul heart. I love what is evil and have no natural attraction to what is good. You are perfectly righteous and cannot behold corruption. I thank You for the blood of Jesus Christ which covers my sin. I thank You that when You look upon me You see not my sin but His righteousness. O Father, please give me a heart that loves what is good. Please take away my love of sinning. Give me a real appetite for what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent and worthy of praise.