Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

Romans 12: 9

Did God really say we should abhor what is evil? Isn’t evil a matter of opinion? And what is good? How can the God of love tell us to abhor anything? And abhor isn’t a very kind word, is it?

We live in a world where some even question the idea of what is good or evil. I am reminded of Isaiah’s words –

Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
and shrewd in their own sight!
Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,
and valiant men in mixing strong drink,
who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
and deprive the innocent of his right!

Isaiah 5:20-23

My Thessarus tells me abhor means “to detest, hate, loathe, despise, abominate, execrate, regard with disgust, shrink from, recoil from, shudder at, be unable to bear, be unable to abide, feel hostility/aversion to, find intolerable, dislike, disdain, have an aversion to…”

The answer is found at the beginning of the verse. Love must be genuine. God’s love detests what is evil. God can not tolerate evil and in the end that same love must finally bring judgment.

Many have been seduced by the lie that love is one-sided, but we know that isn’t really love. If you see someone caught up in something is it loving to leave them there? Is it loving to let someone believe a lie?

Maybe we should pay more attention to the words of Jude because God really does despise sin.

“Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh” (Jude 22,23).