From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now we come this evening to a new subsection in the 12th chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans which we read at the beginning. This is a section that begins at the 9th verse and goes on to the end of the chapter. "Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good," and so on.

Again, as we look at this subsection, it's very important that we should be aware and remind ourselves of the connection. The whole chapter is a chapter in which the Apostle begins to deal with the practical application and outworking of the great doctrine that he's been dealing with and laying down in the first 11 chapters. That's his method: doctrine first, then application.

And we've spent time in seeing how important it is that we should always go on from the doctrine to the application. Primarily, the Christian life is a way of life. The Christians were first of all called "the people of the Way." It wasn't merely because they thought in a particular way; it was also because they lived in a particular way and because they died in a particular way. Therefore, it is vitally important that we should always proceed from doctrine to practice. Faith without works is dead.

That's what we have in this chapter. We've seen that it can be divided up like this: the first two verses lay down the great overriding principles that govern the whole matter of the Christian's conduct and behavior. They're a general introduction to the whole of the remainder of the entire Epistle. Then, having done that in the first two verses, the Apostle proceeds in the subsection that goes from verse 3 to verse 8 to deal with the Christian in the church, exercising the various gifts that the Spirit of God gives to Christian people for the edification and the proper functioning and working of the church, which is the body of Christ.

You remember that his reason for doing this is that so often it is in these outworkings that troubles and difficulties arise. People tend to be selfish, self-centered, to regard themselves as the author of their gifts, and to boast and to despise others. The Apostle shows us how entirely wrong that is and what a contradiction it is of the very nature of the Christian church. From that, we went on to consider the picture that we have here incidentally of the life of the Christian church at the beginning. It was a kind of pneumatic body, not a mere organization, but a live organism with each member having some gift and manifesting it and displaying it so that together they were able to show forth the life of the body into which they had been incorporated.

Now, that is the point at which we've arrived. But from here on, the Apostle now is concerned to deal more with the general conduct of the Christian. So far, we've been looking at the Christian very much as a member of the church, as a member of the body. Not so much what he does as an individual, but what he does as a part of this body. You remember the comparison that the church is like a body and that we as individual members are parts of this mystical body of Christ. There, the functioning has been in terms of the functioning of the whole body.

But now, having done that, he goes on to deal with the conduct and the behavior of the Christian much more as an individual and in his relationship to his fellow Christians and, beyond that, his relationship to people in general in the world in which he still finds himself. So, there is a very definite break at the end of verse 8, and in verse 9, the Apostle does come to a new subdivision or subsection of this general theme.

From here on, we are confronted by a series of statements. The commentators are naturally concerned about this question: Is there any order here? Is there any arrangement? Or has the Apostle just laid down a number of maxims for our guidance without being concerned to have any arrangement? Did he just put down a number of things as they came to him, as they occurred to him, or if you like, as they were suggested to him by the Spirit?

The majority of commentators seem to be agreed that there is no really discernible order here and that it's very difficult to have the classification that we've been able to have generally hitherto in the whole of this Epistle. I must confess that I'm not quite in agreement with them. I agree it is the most difficult subsection that we've ever come across in our studies of the Epistle from the standpoint of this subdividing into headings. This Apostle of all Apostles had a very orderly mind. That is one of the great features of his style; he was a logical man, he thought clearly, and he was a systematic thinker.

We know we've had many instances of where he breaks into that and forgets it and is carried away, but it doesn't matter; he always comes back to it. He's got a fundamental order and system in his mind. You could easily contrast him in that respect, especially with the Apostle John, perhaps. However, the question is whether he has any order or arrangement here. I am contending that even here, there is an order and there is a classification, and we can suggest a division of the matter. I'm not pretending that it's absolute. There are one or two difficulties, but I think on the whole, there is an order here and a sequence.

I suggest it's something like this: in the 9th verse, he lays down two great principles which must govern the whole of the life and the behavior of the Christian. That, of course, is very typical of him. He's done that already in this chapter and it was his method: some great, fundamental, undergirding, overriding principles which govern the whole of what he's going to say. That, I think I can show you he gives us in the 9th verse.

Then in verses 10 and 11, he is concerned, I suggest, with our general spirit, our general attitude, both towards what we are and one another and our work. Then in verses 12 and 13, I believe he moves on to show us how we should react to varying circumstances, both our own and other people's. Before that, you see, he's dealing with our action and activity; now it's reaction. First, what you do. Well, then secondly, what you do when things happen to you. Action, reaction.

That brings us to the end of the 13th verse. Verses 12 and 13 are our reaction to circumstances of our own and others. Then in verses 14 to 16, he deals with our reaction to other people. Before, in 12 and 13, it was reaction to circumstances, but having dealt with that, he deals now with our reaction to people. "Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep." Here, you see, we are reacting to other people and their behavior and their conduct and their circumstances. That's verses 14 to 16.

Then from 17 to the end of the chapter, there is clearly one special theme, and that is our reaction to wrong and evil. You see, it starts off by saying, "Recompense to no man evil for evil." Somebody's been dealing with you in a wrong way, in an evil manner. How do you react to that? How do you treat them? Now he takes that up and he expands that more than he does any other single theme, and he ends it off with again a general principle or maxim: "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good."

Well, there in a very general way, I think, is the analysis of this particular subsection. I think it is important to realize that there is a progression in the thought here, that there is obviously a measure of system. I think the thing that confuses people and makes them say that perhaps no such analysis is possible is because, having said in verse 14, "Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not," instead of going on immediately to verse 17 where he says, "Recompense to no man evil for evil," he seems to go back again to our relationship not to those who are persecuting us or who are unkind or malicious to us, but to people more generally where he says, "Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things."

It does seem to be an interruption in that logical sequence. And yet, I think if you put it in the broad way that I've suggested to you, we've got a solution to the problem. It was first in 12 and 13 reaction to circumstances, then reaction to people, and then in particular our behavior with respect to definite evil and wrongdoing on the part of others with respect to us.

Well, there's your analysis. I think it's clear, isn't it, that what he's really doing is this: he's putting in his own way our Lord's own summary of the commandments. You remember the man came and asked our Lord, "Which is the first and the chiefest commandment?" And our Lord replied saying, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and all thy mind, and all thy strength. That is the first and chiefest commandment. The second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

That's what we have really got here in these verses from 9 to the end of the chapter. Love of God, love of neighbor, even if your neighbor happens to be your enemy. It's a perfect statement of that. Or if you prefer it, it is a statement of the leading principles of the Sermon on the Mount. Once more, love of God and love of your neighbor. That is the summary of the whole of the law.

Now, as we come to a detailed consideration of this subsection, there are two things, it seems to me, that stand out at once and should strike us. The first is this: once more, we've got a final answer here to those people who would have us believe that there is a contrast between the teaching of our blessed Lord and the Apostle Paul. That teaching is still current and still fairly popular. People contrast what they would call the ethical, practical teaching of our Lord as you have it in the Sermon on the Mount with this theological teaching of the Apostle Paul. They're always contrasting the simple gospel of Christ, which they say was always concerned with the practicalities of living, with all this theological superstructure that the Apostle Paul has incorporated into and imposed upon that simple gospel.

Now, here, you see, is a final answer to that. The Apostle in his way is concerned, as the Lord was, with the practicalities of the Christian life. He's dealing with exactly the same thing. This is his way of expounding the law as given to the children of Israel through Moses, even as our Lord had already done it in the Sermon on the Mount.

That's our first comment. The second comment is this: we cannot possibly understand this teaching of this subsection and profit by it unless we constantly bear in mind the teaching of the first two verses of the chapter. They alone make this possible. "I beseech you therefore, by the mercies of God." If you don't know what they are and if you haven't experienced them, it's no use your dealing with this subsection; you won't be able to do it. It's only an appeal to those who are born again. No man can live the Sermon on the Mount unless he is born again, born of the Spirit, and has a power which is greater than the power of the natural man.

"I beseech you therefore, brethren," in the light of the great doctrine he's been laying down, "by the mercies of God." If we don't know that motive, if that doesn't appeal to us, if that isn't the thing that moves us, it is idle to consider these injunctions, these maxims, if you may so describe them. Equally ridiculous to do so as it is to talk about the Sermon on the Mount. Our Lord, I believe, preached the Sermon on the Mount to show us our absolute need of the new birth and of the Spirit of God. The idea that a man or men can take the Sermon on the Mount and make it the basis of their social gospel or of the life of the state is one of the most fantastic ideas that has ever entered into the mind of men. It is a sheer impossibility. The idea that people who can't even keep the law of England could live the Sermon on the Mount—is there anything more fantastic than such a notion?

Well, here then, I say, you must bear this in mind: you present your bodies a living sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service, your spiritual service. You mustn't be conformed to this world, but you must be transformed by the renewing of your mind, even by the renewing of the spirit of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Very well, don't forget that. Those first two verses really are the basis of every one of the subsections right away through to the end of the entire Epistle.

Well now, we start with verse 9. Here, I say, we come to these two vital undergirding principles. "Let love be without dissimulation." That's number one. Two: "Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good." What a wonderful, what a perfect summary of the whole life of the Christian man. These two things cover everything. And if we're only right about these two principles, we can't go wrong. That's why the Apostle, you see, starts with them.

There is no basis to Christian living apart from this, and it must always be thought of in these terms. Love—there's the great first principle. He starts with that. But it's got to be without dissimulation. Now, we shall find the Apostle goes on repeating this sort of thing. You will find in the 13th chapter in verse 10, he says this: "Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." It's just another way of starting by saying, "Let love be without dissimulation." Love is the fulfilling of the law. It's the whole basis; it's the only thing that makes it possible. It sums up the whole of the law.

What is the law of God? Well, of course, the Jews, the Pharisees in particular, had completely misunderstood it. There they were, you see, with their 630 details, and they were experts, as our Lord said, on the details and the minutiae. They were tithing mint and rue and anise and cumin and had forgotten the weightier matters of the law. What are they? Oh, the love of God. That was the whole tragedy of the Jews, that they had reduced the true conception of the law of God to a matter of rules and regulations and details and minutiae, subsections and subsections and losing themselves and forgetting the great principle.

Now, you see, the Apostle again deals with all that in his extraordinary manner as we see it before us here. The law is summed up in this: love to God, love to your neighbor. That's the way to think of law, not to miss the wood because of the trees, not to be just little moralists concerned about particular things. That comes, of course, and he does that with us, but before you do that, you've got to start with the great principle. You've got to start with the right idea of law. This is law: loving God, loving your neighbor.

Now the Apostle, therefore, starts with this great emphasis upon love. You see, when you're dealing with conduct, you start with love. It's relationships that matter. We get into trouble in details because our relationships are wrong. It isn't actions that matter; it is personal relationships. And it is because people forget that that they get into trouble over the detailed actions. We must never forget that we're dealing with persons and that it is personal relationships that matter above everything else. And here, there is nothing that counts save love.

The Apostle uses the strongest word that was available for love. There are many words used to deal with love in the New Testament. This is the strongest, *agape*. It's the strongest word of all. It is the word that he uses to express God's love to us. And what he's saying here, in a sense, is this: that we should be animated in our living by the same kind of love wherewith God has loved us. That's the very word that he uses, the strongest and the deepest and the greatest. You know how in 1 Corinthians 13, the Apostle gives us what is sometimes called his hymn of love. And it's undoubtedly right when people say that he had to write that chapter because the Greek language really hadn't got a word before Christianity came which really conveyed all that, so he has to say a number of things about it to safeguard it from debasing ideas with respect to it.

Well, now then, here is the thing which he lays down at once. Your whole conduct is to be governed by the kind of loving outlook which characterizes God's outlook upon you. What is that? Well, it's unconditional and it is without reservation. Love is something which is totalitarian. It is, therefore, a call to us to give to God an allegiance in all ways and with the whole of our being. We are to regard ourselves, therefore, in terms of love and within the terms of this whole relationship of love. Love to God, love to the neighbor.

Then he hastens to say, "Let love be without dissimulation." What does this mean? Well, it means that we mustn't be playing a part, we mustn't be pretending. If you like, we mustn't be hypocrites. We must be honest; it must be true love, not some kind of artificial product which simulates love. And here, I think it's very important for us to realize this: that in this matter of love, we must not only not deceive others, we mustn't even deceive ourselves. And people often do that, and I believe there is a great deal of that at the present time.

We are living in a lawless age. We're living in an age whose motto seems to be not law, but love. You know the objection to theology, the objection to the wrath of God, the objection to the atonement—all that is really an objection to law. People dislike the whole notion of law and they contrast law and love. That is, of course, one of the most fundamental fallacies of which people can ever be guilty. And here, the talk is about love, you see; everything's to be done by means of love. But the question is: is it really love, or are they just fooling themselves? Are they just playacting? What is there behind it?

Now, I think this is a very important question for the Christian church at the present time, with all this modern emphasis on love and fellowship. Is it genuine? Is it true? Is it real? Is it free from dissimulation? Is it merely a facade, an appearance, something that's put up, or is there a real love there? Now, the Apostle is concerned that it must be without any dissimulation, no playacting, no pretending, no assuming, not merely playing a part, but it must be genuine and come from the depths of our being.

Let me give you some more negatives. When he talks about love, he's not merely talking about politeness. He's not merely talking about affability. How often are these things confused? If people are affable, it's said they're gracious and loving. Affability and graciousness and love are poles apart. Affability is merely putting on a manner; it's polite, it's appearance, it's a suit that you put on. Affability is a very superficial thing. Grace and love are very deep things.

Love, again, is not something sentimental and weak. Of course, we're living in an age which is abusing this word "love" more than anything else. That's the whole influence, isn't it, of the cinema, the television, and the newspapers—the way they talk about people falling in love? They don't know what it means; they're animals. They mean lust, but it's called love. So, you see, it's important that we should be clear about these things. Love, according to the Bible, is never sentimental; it is never weak.

And thirdly, and most important of all, love must never be contrasted with law. As the Apostle says in the next chapter, "Love is the fulfilling of the law." Or as our Lord puts it, "Which is the first of the greatest commandment? Thou shalt love." To put love and law up as contrasts is a failure to understand the really basic and elementary teaching of the whole of the New Testament. And yet, you see, that is what is being done at the present time. People deny the doctrine of the atonement because they say it's legal. But the atonement is legal. It is because it must be legal that the Son of God had to die on the cross on Calvary's Hill. It was a great legal transaction. As Paul puts it again in Romans 3:25 and 26, "That he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." Without a fulfillment of the law, there is no salvation for anybody. And the glory of the love of God is that it fulfills the law. It doesn't deny it, it doesn't set it on one side; it fulfills the law.

So, there is nothing more fatal than to think of love as something which is contrasted with law. Very well, it isn't anything like that. Well, what is it then? What does he mean by saying, "Let love be without dissimulation"? Well, we can put it like this: it means that we must keep God's commandments. You see, you remember how our Lord himself has defined this in the 14th chapter of John's Gospel: "If ye love me, keep my commandments." How do you show that you love God? By singing hymns or choruses? All right, it comes in, but that's not enough, you know; that doesn't guarantee that you really love God. "If ye love me, keep my commandments." Then you're giving proof of love.

But he says it again—that was John 14:15. Listen to John 14:21: "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." If a man doesn't keep God's commandments, it is idle for him to talk about loving God. You don't love God in words, but in deeds and in truth. Take the 23rd verse of the same chapter: "Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."

Now, my friends, let's be clear then about this. Love is something that shows itself always and manifests itself in conduct and in action and behavior. It is not a mere sentiment. It's not weak, it's very strong, and it is a carrying out of the law, a fulfilling of the commandments of God. John is so concerned about this that he comes back to it in his first Epistle, second chapter, verse 4: "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him."

Now, that's the teaching of the whole Bible. The Bible never merely asks for our mechanical obedience. It can be summed up, if you like, in a phrase like this: "Son, give me thine heart." It's the heart that God wants. In other words, we are not only to keep God's law, what we are called upon to do, as we're reminded here, is to love it. We are meant to love the law of God. The Psalmist could rise to that height; he says, "O how love I thy law! Thy commandments are my delight."

That's what God wants, and Paul is saying that in his own way here. "Let love be without dissimulation." This is the thing that governs the whole of conduct and of behavior. It is the keeping of the commandments of God, and we not only do these things but we love the law and we love the keeping of the law. In other words, you don't only keep the letter, but you keep the spirit. If you merely keep the letter and are not true to the spirit, your love is with dissimulation. You're just keeping on the right side of the law. That means you really hate it; you wish it wasn't there, but you don't want to suffer punishment, so you just keep on the right side of it. That's love with dissimulation.

So, it doesn't merely mean keeping the letter or just keeping within the law. What it means, you see, in other words, is this: we start by recognizing that the law of God is, after all, an expression of God's being. God doesn't give laws merely for the sake of doing so; God expresses his own nature and his own being. God says, "I am like this." God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. Very well, then because that is true, there are certain things that cannot happen in the presence of God, and the law simply tells us what they are. So, the thing for us to do is to realize that the law is an expression of God's being and, therefore, we should love the law because it is an expression of God's character. "Be ye holy, why? For I am holy, saith the Lord."

This is the expression of the being and the character of God. So, when the Apostle says, "Let love be without dissimulation," he's saying, "Oh, let your life of obedience to the commandments of God be wholehearted. Wholehearted, entire, no reservations." Don't live this kind of life, says the Apostle, in order to please yourself. Don't do it merely to please others. Now, alas, we know what these negatives mean, don't we? So often we live the life we do in order to please ourselves, to pander to pride and to feed pride. Or we may do it because we want the praise of others. There's a lot in the New Testament about not being men-pleasers.

In other words, if our motive for living the Christian life is either to please ourselves or to please others, our love is not without dissimulation because the moment we start thinking of ourselves and our reputation and what other people are thinking and saying about us, we've departed from the principle of love. Indeed, it is nothing but self-love, and that is always with dissimulation.

In other words, we are being called here to please God above all else and to live to his glory and to his praise. The chief end of man is to glorify God. Now, says the Apostle, do that with the whole of your being because of God's love to you. We love him because he first loved us. If you know anything about the mercies of God, well, this'll be your response. That's what he's saying.

Now, there are many ways in which this can be put. There are many warnings in the scripture. The scriptures come to us and they say, "Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." That's in the scriptures, but that isn't what Paul is saying. That's perfectly true. "Let love be without dissimulation." If you don't practice that, well then you're a fool, apart from anything else. If you think you can deceive God, well, you know nothing about God. "Be not deceived." Don't deceive yourself. Don't think that you, as it were, can take God in and that you can act a part before God. "Be not deceived. God is not mocked."

You watch that; that's repeated so many times in the New Testament. Or take the words of our Lord to the Pharisees: "Ye are they that justify yourselves before men." Of course, they made broad their phylacteries, and they made a great impression upon men, and men praised them. "Wonderful men," they said. Oh, it's an easy thing to take in men and to take in the world. But our Lord says, "Ye are they that justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth the heart: for that which is highly esteemed amongst men is abomination in the sight of God."

Don't be fooled, says the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews: "All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." Well, there you see are the warnings of the scripture. And they're all right. That's telling us not to be foolish to try any dissimulation where God is concerned. It's sheer madness; it just doesn't work. It may work for a while; God doesn't always strike us down immediately, and the world may applaud, but it's no good. There comes always the end and death and the judgment, and God knows all. Dissimulation is madness.

But you see, he doesn't leave it at the negative. True love lifts us up above all this. Love, says the Apostle, and if you love truly, there will be no dissimulation. In other words, if you like this phrase, "Let love be without dissimulation" is just a great text for 1 Corinthians 13. That's the real working out of this. That's how you love. And there you'll notice the great positives. And once you've come to the realm of love, oh, you're out of the realm of calculation and diplomacy and pretense and simulation. You're away from all that. You're living in a pure realm, and you're positive, and you're doing the thing not because you want to create an impression but as an expression of your heart's love to God who has shown such mercy towards you.

And so he's telling us here: let this be the basis of the whole of your life, all your actions, and everything you do. And if you have love, he says at the start and at the end and everywhere, well then you'll never be acting a part, but you will in turn be loving God as he has loved you. Now, you notice that this is a command. "Let love be without dissimulation." And that again reminds us that love is not just a sentiment or a feeling. Get rid of that notion. Love is always the result of understanding.

Love is not something you can create or work up in your life; you can't do that. Love is always the result of something else, and it is the result of understanding. So it's a commandment. "Let love be without dissimulation." How do you do that? How do you make sure that your love is without any dissimulation? Well, the Apostle has already answered the question for us, and I've often quoted this verse to you. It's the 17th verse in the 6th chapter of this great Epistle: "But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart..." what? "...the form, that form of doctrine that was delivered you."

And there it is in a nutshell. If you really understand the doctrine that has been delivered to you and if you believe it, well then it'll move your heart, and you'll practice it with the whole of your heart. You have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you. And of course, it's not only a matter of understanding; the Holy Spirit in us creates this within us. We were told in the 5th chapter in the 5th verse: "Hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."

Now, then, the way, therefore, to make sure that our love is without dissimulation is not just to be governed by our whims and feelings and likes and dislikes—when I'm in the mood, be nice; if I'm in a bad temper, be difficult. No, no. Always thinking it out, always realizing, always coming back to the "therefore" of the first verse. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God." Applying this great logic, examining your love in the light of the truth. And as long as you do so, your love will be without dissimulation.

Well, there's the first great maxim. Let me say something about the second one. The second one is: "Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good." Now watch the terms here again: "abhor" and "cleave." This second maxim follows of necessity, of course, from the first. The opposite of love is to hate, and that's the very term that the Apostle uses: "abhor that which is evil." What's it mean? Well, have a horror of. Dislike utterly. The word he uses is a word which has a prefix which means a separation from. He says, "express yourself and the hatred that you feel towards evil."

What is evil? Well, evil is not something abstract. Evil is active opposition to good. I needn't expand this; unfortunately, the world in which we're living is giving us a very clear demonstration day by day as to what evil means. Evil is not just the absence of good; it is a positive thing. It is against the good, it hates the good, it is militant against the good. Think of the evil in the world tonight—in pleasure and in all the entertainments—can't you see this positive thing that is ruling it and guiding it, the organization that's behind it, and how men delight in making money out of it all? That's evil. That's the thing he says that you ought to have a horror of. It's a very strong word that he uses. It means, if you like, shying away from it, like a horse shies away from something that he doesn't quite understand, something that frightens him.

Now, the thing that I want to emphasize is this: the terms more or less explain themselves. Let me emphasize the principle. You notice the feeling that he introduces into it. The feeling, the strong feeling. "Abhor." Have a positive hatred, an utter dislike of it. In other words, he tells us that we must not merely not do things that are wrong and evil; we must hate them. Now, it's possible for a man not to do evil things but to have great pleasure out of them in his mind and in his imagination. If that's his position, he is not abhorring evil. But the Apostle tells us to abhor that which is evil. In other words, you don't merely keep on the right side of the law, you're just not doing the thing. The thing itself is revolting to you. That's what he's exhorting us to. The thing is unthinkable in mind, in imagination, in thought, and in every respect.

How does one do this? How does one become capable of doing this? Well, again, you see, it demands thought, and this is most important in all these matters. No man will ever abhor evil unless he has an understanding of the doctrine. You go back again to verse 1: "It is, brethren, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God." You may recognize that certain things are bad, and you may dislike them, and you may feel a righteous indignation about them, and you may write letters to the newspapers about them, but you know, if you're only a moralist and not a Christian, you won't be abhorring evil.

There is only one thing that can ever make a man abhor that which is evil, and that is that he has a positive love to God. Nothing else will ever do this. You'll never understand the nature of evil until you understand something of the doctrine of the holiness of God. For evil is the opposite of that. And so, you only realize what evil actually is when you see what it is in God's universe. When you think of that holy God who made a perfect universe and saw that it was good, and then this other thing comes in—that's what makes you abhor it.

Now, that is the biblical teaching. I think I've put it to you before like this: when you go home, read the 104th Psalm for yourselves. And you'll find that in the 104th Psalm, the Psalmist gives a great account of God's universe, how God controls everything and so on, and he ends in a most amazing way: "Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more." He suddenly brings them in. He's been describing nature and creation. Why does he do this? Well, because he's looked out at the glory and the perfection and the marvel of it all, and then he sees this miserable sinner marring the glory and the perfection, and he says, "Get rid of him. Abhor it. Get a shoot out, as it were. It has no place here."

Well now, that's the kind of thing that the Apostle is saying. And I say the only way to do that is to have a knowledge of God in his glory and in his holiness and in his majesty. Now, the Bible is full of this sort of contrast. Psalm 97:10: "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil." You see, they're bound to go together. If you truly love the Lord, you will hate evil. Not because you suffer when you do the thing, not because people will condemn you for doing it—you see, that's morality and ethics—no, no, you'll hate the thing because you see it in the light of God and his purpose. And this other thing that has come in, you'll hate it with a great hatred because you love God. "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil."

Or take Amos 5:15: "Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate." Or take it in the way that the Apostle Peter puts it in his first Epistle and in the third chapter and in verses 10 and 11: "He that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. Let him eschew evil..." shy away from it "...and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it." Or the way Jude puts it in the 23rd verse of his Epistle: "Others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh." That's it. The man who loves God must hate evil. And the more we know God and love him, the greater will be our hatred of evil. We won't just refrain from doing things; we won't just be nice little moral people who don't do certain things. We will have a positive hatred of evil.

In other words, you see, the command is that we are to be like God himself. "Be ye holy, for I am holy." Habakkuk puts it, you remember: "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity." Take the great contrasts in 2 Corinthians 6: God and Belial, righteousness and unrighteousness, light and darkness—there's no communion. They are eternal opposites. And God is of pure eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on iniquity.

Now, that's the thing to which the Apostle exhorts us: abhor that which is evil because you love God and your love is an entire one and without dissimulation. In other words, we're not told just to put down a little list of things we're not to do. How often has all this been put in such miserable terms? Because you've become a Christian, you don't do this and that and the other. All right, I'm not objecting to the list; probably everything is true, but that's legalism, my dear friends, and here we're in the realm of love.

Don't merely look at these things per se. Look at them always in the light of God in his holy nature, in the light of his holiness, in the light of his love to you and what he's done for you by his grace and mercy. Your love for him should lift you up to that realm and you look down upon it all as he does, and you hate evil. You abhor it.

And the opposite of that is to "cleave to the good." "Cleave to that which is good." And this is a most interesting word. The real meaning of the original is this: it's like sticking two pieces of wood together with glue. That's what "cleaving" means. Stick yourself to good with glue. Cement yourself, if you like, to that which is good. Join or fasten yourself so firmly to the good that you can't be separated from it. And good means that which is good in the sight of God.

Well now, here you see are the two fundamental principles governing the whole of conduct. This and what do I say about it? Well, here are my comments. Can't you see that we're obviously in a realm here which is entirely removed from the realm of mere ethics and morality? It's not a negative outlook; it's a positive outlook. What we're being called to is a passion for holiness and a passion for truth. If you regard the Christian life and the commandments of God as hard and grievous and narrow and sometimes are tempted to give it all up, my dear friend, it's because you know nothing about God and about his love. And what you need is not to be reminded of the commandments, but to be reminded of God and his holy nature and his love to you, his grace to you who deserved nothing but punishment and hell. It's a passion that he's calling for. You love, you hate. You're consumed by a passion to serve the God who has done so much for you through his dear Son, who didn't even spare him but delivered him up for you. And you show your gratitude to him by doing everything you can to please him and to be well-pleasing in his sight.

And lastly, you notice again that it is something we are commanded to do. Holiness is not something that's done for you. A teaching which says "let go and let God" is the opposite of this. This is a command. "Let your love be without dissimulation." You must hate evil, cleave to that which is good. You've got to do it. And there is no such thing as entire sanctification in this life, for this is a perpetual exhortation and commandment. You can't suddenly have it all taken out of you in one experience. No, no. This is a commandment that you have to go on fulfilling and obeying. And we work it out.

And thank God we are told how we can work it out. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God." Consider it, dwell upon the doctrine. If you want to know how to live, don't start with the practicalities; start with the truth, with the doctrine. Understand it, grasp it, see what it means in terms of God's love to you. And then you'll find a great love welling up in your own heart, and the Spirit will come, and he'll shed the love of God abroad in your heart. And filled with that love, you will desire above everything else to keep the commandments of God. They'll no longer be grievous to you; you will be hating evil and you'll be cleaving, sticking fast as by glue, to that which is good and well-pleasing in the sight of God. The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him, and to enjoy the glorifying of him forever. Well, God willing, we'll go on with these other injunctions next Friday evening.

O Lord our God, we do again thank thee for so great and so glorious, so wonderful a salvation. Lord, that thou shouldest ever have brought us into the realm of such things. O forgive us, we pray thee, not so much for our sinfulness and failure as for our smallness, for the way in which we so constantly reduce the glories of thy way to our own small measures and understanding. O God, have mercy upon us. Shed thy love abroad in our hearts. Fill us with thine own love, we humbly pray thee, so that there shall be one holy passion filling all our frame, and we shall be able to say honestly, "Let nothing please nor pain me apart, O Lord, from thee." And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit, abide and continue with us now this night, throughout the remainder of this our short, uncertain earthly life and pilgrimage, and evermore. Amen.