Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
-Romans 12:9b, NIV
“If a man is discovered committing adultery, both he and the woman must die. In this way, you will purge Israel of such evil.”
-Deuteronomy 22:22, NLT
Hate gets such an undeserved reputation among Christians.
Sometimes the right thing to do is to hate.
Evil is exactly how the world ought not to be. It is a willful perversion of God’s intended goodness. As such, it ought to be hated.
We ought to have a gut-level investment in seeing evil destroyed.
Evil ought to move us.
Move us to hate.
To be clear:
I am in no way advocating hatred of people but rather evil behavior.
Returning to the cited verses, I want to point out that Christians are charged with a command to hate evil. And adultery–as we see in Deuteronomy 22:22–is classified as evil.
To not hate adultery is to sin.
There is not neutrality on this point. The so-called “high minded” person who refuses to condemn the adultery is in a spiritually perilous place. He or she is disobeying the command in Romans 12:9 to hate evil.
If pastors and other Christians actually stopped sinning and started hating adultery as Scripture teaches, I suspect faithful spouses would find themselves much better supported in the church.
In fact, I think such hatred would serve cheaters as well. Such hatred would mean a rejection of the lame excuses cheaters give for their infidelity. It would communicate God’s heart on the matter of adultery:
Adultery is very serious. And God requires repentance from an adulterous spouse first and foremost!
God’s heart regarding adultery is one of hatred. If you do not hate adultery, then you do not have the heart of God.
*A version of this post ran previously.
