Love Righteousness and Hate Wickedness

Our goal should be to be righteous before God by being saved from our sins, and then to live a life of righteousness. It is a lofty goal, but it is attainable. However, it will not happen just because we desire to be righteous, and we study what that means. At the same time as we are loving righteousness, we must be hating wickedness or sin. It takes both to be successful in being like Jesus, The Righteous One who never sinned. The psalmist knew this truth. (Psalm 45:7) He also knew the reward that God would give to those who made it their purpose to love righteousness and to hate wickedness. They will be anointed with the oil of joy more than other people. I believe we all want to have joy in our lives, so this is very important.

Most of us know that joy is part of the fruit of the Spirit. It is a result of being filled with the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to have His way in our lives. What will the Spirit lead us to do? He will lead us to love righteousness, while hating wickedness. He is going to lead us to be like Jesus. Jesus always did the right things and He never sinned. He loved to please the Father, and He hated anything that caused destruction to Him and others. That is why He hated wickedness. If we will do that in the power of the Spirit, God will anoint us by the power of the Spirit to have real joy. That is His anointing, which is symbolic of the Spirit working in us. I pray we will all understand this truth and truly be filled with joy more than all of those around us.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Psalms 46-48.