Perfect Hatred

If we really aspire to live a victorious Christian life, it is absolutely essential that our hatred become complete, consummate…perfect.

In referring to the enemies of God, the Psalmist rhetorically asked: “Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with a perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies” (Psalm 139:21-22, KJV). And we also hear this sentiment expressed in a couple other Psalms as well: “I abhor the assembly of evildoers” (26:5), and “I hate those who cling to worthless idols” (31:6).

Now we should know that the paradigm conveyed by the Psalmist in these (and other) verses completely shifted with the advent of Christ and the New Covenant. Jesus was absolutely unambiguous when He said to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). Whenever James and John saw a Samaritan village disrespect their Righteous Leader, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” Jesus then rebuked them in no uncertain terms (Luke 9:54-55).

But there is a very important principle to be gleaned here nonetheless.

We should, indeed, possess hatred in our hearts, but the only hatred we should ever possess is that hatred which is directed solely at sin and “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12). This is the hatred that must be perfect if we are ever to know consistent and unmitigated victory in our lives.

Paul admonished the Romans to “hate what is evil; cling to what is good” (12:9), and the Psalmist also wrote, “let those who love the Lord hate evil” (97:10).

How “perfect” is our hatred for evil? Are we angered whenever we hear our Lord’s name carelessly and nonchalantly used in vain? Do we become indignant when we see someone assailed by a spirit of infirmity? Does it infuriate us to witness the exploitation of women and girls in our modern media?

By way of analogy, the Israelites came to be “okay with” allowing remnants of indigenous Canaanite tribes to remain in the land despite God’s unequivocal warning that they would be a snare to them if they were not ruthlessly and totally dealt with (i.e. destroyed).

In very much the same way, if we fail to deal ruthlessly with sin and compromise in our lives (and therefore effectively tolerate and coddle it), it will for sure become a snare to us as well.

In the post-modern, relativistic world in which we live, such an attitude of “intolerance” is certainly not very popular, but it is the standard we must uphold if we really desire to walk in power and be “salt and light” to those around us.

Lord, perfect our hatred. Give us a visceral distain for everything that would seek to compromise Your standard of righteousness. Cause us to feel the way that You feel about wickedness and injustice in the earth. Make us an intolerant people.