God has called us to be like Him – abhor evil and cling to what is good.

Abhor What is Evil – Cling to What is Good

Romans 12:9

Brothers and sisters, this morning we continue our exposition of the epistle of the apostle Paul to the Romans. We have seen in the first two verses, that as a result of the mercies of God, we are to give God our bodies in complete surrender to do His will, not being conformed to the world, but being transformed by the renewing of our mind. We are to relate to the church, by every one of us using our spiritual gifts to minister to one another in humility and love. Further, we are to have a radical commitment of love for one another in the church. Last Sunday we meditated on five exhortations that define brotherly love. We saw that brotherly love is a sincere love, an affectionate love, a selfless love, a generous love, and a hospitable love.

This morning, we are going to take our entire time to meditate on the second half of Romans 12:9, “Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.”  There are two commands for the Christian here. We are to abhor what is evil, and we are to cling to what is good.

But before we focus directly on those words, there are a couple of things that I need to say by way of introduction.

1)  There is absolute good and evil.  We know that because Paul tells us to abhor evil and cling to good. If there were not absolute good and evil, this exhortation would be impossible to obey. Evidently, Paul expected the Romans to know the things that were in the “evil” category, and the things that were in the “good” category.

I only bring this up, because in over the last 40 years, our culture has done a major shift. The period of history up to the mid 1700’s has been called the Pre-modern era. During this period of time, people generally believed in the authority of Scripture to give us truth.  From the mid 1700’s to the 1990s we lived in the modern age. During this age we relied on science and reason to give us truth.  From the 1990’s to today we are living in the postmodern age. In this age there is no truth, or if there is truth, it is determined by the individual.

Think of the history of philosophy as an umpire at a baseball game. The pre-modern umpire says “I call them as they are.”  The modern umpire says “I call them as I see them.”  The postmodern says “I call them, and that’s what they are.”  To the pre-modern truth was found in Scripture. To the modern, truth was found in science and reason. To the post-modern, truth can’t be found because there is no truth.  In our moral relativistic culture, you can move from something that is unthinkable to something that becomes policy in 5 slow incremental steps:

1. Go from unthinkable to radical
2. Go from radical to acceptable
3. Go from acceptable to sensible
4. Go from sensible to popular
5. Go from popular to policy

Brothers and sisters, we are living in an age where people have rejected the idea of absolute truth. The Biblical worldview is that there is truth and there is error. There is right and there is wrong. There is good and there is evil. We must make sure that we are not swept into the whirlpool of moral relativism in our culture. Rather, we must say what God has said, no matter who rejects or denies it.

2)  God pronounces a woe upon those who call evil good and good evil.  Listen to Isaiah 5:20, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”  That’s exactly what we are seeing in American culture today. People are calling evil good.  And they are calling good evil. What does God say to people like that?  “Woe!”  In other words He is pronouncing a curse upon those that would do such a thing. That ought to make every American tremble! They will stand before Almighty God to be judged for the things they have done in their body, whether good or bad. If they have called evil good or good evil, woe to them in that day!

1. Abhor What is Evil

Abhor.  What does that word mean?  It means to hate, to loathe, to detest with horror; to shrink from in disgust. Imagine you are walking through a junk yard in the dark, and you stumbled over something. When you turned on your flashlight you discovered that you had stumbled over a corpse crawling with maggots.  How would you feel?  You would abhor that corpse! You would detest it! You would shrink back from it in horror!  That is how we should respond to evil.  Our problem is that we have become so familiar with evil that it ceases to shock us.

The word is in the present tense so we could paraphrase it, “keep on continually detesting evil.”  This is not something we do once in a while. It is a lifestyle.

What is evil?  Let’s see what the Bible says.

• The devil. Jesus referred to him as “the evil one.”
• Demons. Scripture calls them “evil spirits.”
• Unsaved people. Jesus said in Luke 11:13, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”
• Hypocrisy. Look at the context. Paul begins verse 9 with, “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil…”  The Greek puts it this way, “Let love be without hypocrisy, abhorring what is evil.”  In other words, there seems to be a clear connection between hypocrisy and evil. It is evil to pretend to be what you are not.
• This present age. Galatians 1:4, “who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age…”
• An unbelieving heart. Hebrews 3:12, “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.”
• Personal favoritism. James 2:1-4, “My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?”
• Boasting. James 4:16, “But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.”

Those are just a few of the things that the Bible labels as evil.

Why are we to abhor evil?  I’ll just mention two things.

Because it is infinitely offensive to God.  Habakkuk 1:13, “Thine eyes are too pure to look on evil.”  Jeremiah 44:4, “Oh do not do this abominable thing which I hate.”  God hates sin with a pure and utter hatred.  It was this hatred of sin that caused God to send His Son to make an end of sin.  Jesus Himself hated sin and hated the thought of being made sin. He said, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.”  Hebrews 1:9, speaking of the Son says, “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.” Sin is offensive to God, because it is a challenge to His throne rights. Sin defies God’s right to rule. Sin neglects God, rejects God, and devalues God. Sin is to worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever, amen. If you and I are to be like our God, we too must hate evil.  It should be offensive to us as well.

Because it brings infinite misery to man. Sin brought God’s curse in Paradise, great pain in childbirth for women, and toil and sweat to earn bread for men.  It drove Adam and Eve out of the garden, has brought all the wars of history, has produced millions of needless deaths, mangled bodies, grieving widows, and full cemeteries.  Sin causes the misery of the family in which the father spends grocery money on alcohol, or the mother spends the money for the baby’s milk on drugs. Sin produces the misery of loneliness and bitterness because people will not forgive each other.  Sin has produced the misery of those who have suffered from venereal disease, child abuse, rape, adultery, robberies and crimes of every sort. But beyond all these, the greatest misery of man is for wretched souls to be cut off from God in outer darkness, where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched, suffering in hell eternally!  Adam Clarke wrote that “we should hate sin as we would hate the hell to which it leads.”

How are we to abhor evil? 

By grieving over all sin our life. Jesus said, “blessed are those that mourn for they shall be comforted” (Mt. 5:4).  Brothers and sisters, let yourself feel that it was your sins that nailed Christ to the cross.  John Owen wrote, “I do not understand how a man can be a true believer unto whom sin is not the greatest burden, sorrow, and trouble.”

By forsaking all sin in our life.  We can understand better what Paul means by “abhor” by contrasting it with the next phrase “cling to.”  Evidently to abhor something is the opposite of clinging to it. Therefore to abhor evil is to turn loose of that thing and to forsake it, to get it as far out of your life as possible.  Our problem is that we don’t forsake sin. We know it is wrong and we confess it as sin, but we don’t get rid of it.  We say that “it is just a little sin, and really God doesn’t care about that! It’s no big deal. I’ll still make it to heaven.”  We justify our sin instead of killing it. Jesus taught us to pluck our eye and cut off our hand if it leads us to sin.

By grieving and praying over the sin in our culture. As Christians we must stand against the tide. We do not decide what is right and wrong, good and evil, based on what other people believe, or what is popular in our world today. We must base our convictions on what God has said. After all, at the end of the day, that is really all that matters. Our culture has been changing its moral convictions over the last 70 years in a dramatic fashion.

• Divorce. In the 1950’s 1 out of every 5 marriages ended in divorce.  By the 1970’s it was 1 out of every 2.  Divorce was once considered taboo and very rare. Now, it has become socially acceptable.
• Living Together Outside of Marriage. In 1968 only .2% of 25-34 year olds lived together outside of marriage. By 2018, that number is now 14.8%.  In fact today, in the 18-24 year old category, there are more couples that are living together than are married. In 1996, 2/3 of all couples lived together before getting married.  Living together outside of marriage was once considered taboo and very rare. Now it has become socially acceptable.
• Abortion. Prior to the 1970’s, abortion was socially taboo and was illegal. Now it has become socially acceptable.
• Same Sex Marriage. In the 1970’s, 80’s, and 90’s, the majority of Americans viewed same sex marriage as unthinkable. However, with the strong political activism of the LGBT sector, it slowly began to change until it was legalized in 2015. Today it has become socially acceptable.

What does God have to say about all of these things?  He says they are evil. He hates divorce. Fornication is sin and is condemned in Scripture, as is homosexuality. Abortion is murder and is condemned. God’s Word is clear on all of these things, in spite of the fact that our current popular culture has accepted them. The Christian beats to a different drum than the world. We must abhor all of these things, even though others think there is nothing wrong with them. We should shudder in horror at them. We should be appalled.

2. Cling to What is Good

Brothers and sisters, the only way you will be able to really abhor what is evil is by clinging to what is good.

Cling.  That word in the Greek means “glue to.”  It speaks of a strong attachment to someone or something.  The verb “cling to” is in the present tense, which speaks of continual ongoing activity.  We could translate it, “keep on clinging to what is good.”  This is not a clinging which we do every once in a while. It is something we do continually. The verb “cling to” is the same word used to translate Genesis 2:24, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”  There it is – joined to.  We must be joined to, glued to, cemented to what is good.

What is Good.  How would we define what is good?  In our postmodern world, everyone is free to decide for themselves what is good and no one is allowed to say they are wrong. The new virtue today is “tolerance.”  Well, let’s seek to allow Scripture to define for us what is good.

• Mk. 10:18,“No one is good except God alone”.  Ps.145:9, “The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works.”  Ps.34:8, “O taste and see that the Lord is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.”
• The Son of God. 10:11, “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”
• The Spirit of God. Nehemiah 9:20, “You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them, Your manna You did not withhold from their mouth, and You gave them water for their thirst.”  143:10, “Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”
• The Will of God. 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
• The Word of God. 6:5, “and have tasted the good word of God…”

God is good, whether anyone else agrees with that or not. If they disagree with that, He is still good. If they agree with that. He is still good. His goodness does not depend on whether you agree that He is good. His goodness does not need your vote of confidence. It just is.  He is the ultimate good. Therefore, all three members of the godhead are good – Father, Son and Spirit. And the will of God is good. And the word of God is good.

Therefore, when we are told to cling to what is good, it means we must cling to God, and His will, which is found in His Word.  In other words, we must hold fast to what Scripture teaches us is good. We must not be like the postmodernist and say that what is good is up to every man’s own interpretation, and we must not judge others for what they think is good.  We must also not be like the modernist who tries to decide what is good through his own reason.  Rather, we must be like the premodernist who bases his ethics and morality and what is good on Scripture alone.

My friends are you clinging continually to what is good?  Are you allowing God to reveal to you what is good as you pour over the pages of Scripture day after day?  Do you see God as the ultimate good in your life?  So often when I attend a funeral, those attending try to eulogize the deceased person by saying how much he loved his family, as if that were the ultimate good in life. Now, that’s a great thing, to love your family, but it’s not the ultimate good. The ultimate good is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. The greatest thing that anyone could ever say about you is that you loved God with all your heart.

Are you holding fast to good works?  Remember Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

Are you clinging to good doctrine?  I would define good doctrine as that which is clearly taught in Scripture, which humbles man, exalts Christ, promotes holiness in heart and life, and emphasizes eternity. Have you learned how to discern between good and bad doctrine?  When you learn truth from God’s Word, do you hold fast to it with all your might? Or are you carried about by every wind of doctrine?

Brothers and sisters, cling to what is good!

Conclusion

It is very possible that someone could hear this message, and only hear an exhortation to morality. No, this message is a call to God.  He is the only True Good, and anything that opposes Him is evil. This is a call to draw near to God, His Son, and His Spirit through His word and will, and to oppose anything that does not bow the knee to Him.

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