Proverbs 29:27 - Homilies By W. Clarkson

How to hate the wicked

There is a hatred we have to endure, and there is also a hatred which we have to cherish. The question of any difficulty is—What is the feeling we should cultivate in our hearts towards the guilty? We may glance at—

I. THE HATRED OF US BY THE WICKED . "He that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked."

1 . This is a well-verified fact , attested by Scripture, by history, by observation, probably by experience.

2 . Its explanation is at hand.

3 . There is one right way to meet it; viz.

II. OUR HATRED OF THE WICKED ? That there is a very strong feeling against the wrong doer in the minds of the holy is obvious enough. It is a fact that "an unjust man is an abomination to the just." "Do not I hate them that hate thee?… I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies," said David ( Psalms 139:21 , Psalms 139:22 ). Jesus Christ "looked round about on them with anger" ( Mark 3:5 ). God is "angry with the wicked every day" ( Psalms 7:11 ). He "hateth all the workers of iniquity" ( Psalms 5:5 ). Our feeling, therefore, is the reflection of that which is in the heart of the Holy One himself. Of what elements should it be composed?

1 . One element that should be absent . There should be no trace of personal ill will, of a desire for the suffering of the man himself; for the soul of the sinful we should wish well, and we fall into a mistake, if not into a sin, when we allow ourselves to find a pleasure in witnessing or in dwelling upon the humiliation or the sorrow of the wicked. We ought only to wish for that as a means of their purification and recovery.

2 . The elements that should be present .