A Tree in an Electric Storm

We know the Ten Commandments. We are respectable middle class American Evangelicals. We don’t sponsor orgies or raves. We don’t vote for democrats. We are pro-life and against homosexual marriage. But the life of righteousness is not just about labels. We are not first and foremost income brackets or political partisans. We’re people; we’re lives called to holiness. In particular, we are called to hate and defy every sin. We are called to mortal combat with the legions of sin that war on our flesh. We are not called to a label; we’re called to actually fight. The beginning of wisdom is to hate evil, the wise man says. Do you hate evil? Or do you just hate “liberals”? Do you hate the sin of murder or do you just hate the idea of being killed? Does your stomach turn? Are you physically ill about the widespread stealing that passes as re-zoning, taxing, or gambling? You are called to hatred. You are called to the hatred of evil. And remember, as you accept this calling, that the most perfect instant of wrath and hatred ever poured out in the history of the human race was also the single greatest act of love. Jesus Christ bore the sins of the world, and like a lone tree on the summit of mountain in the middle of an electric storm, the Father struck the Son in your place. The beginning of wisdom is to hate evil, and the cross is the wisdom of God.