Today's message is going to be short and simple...
Psalm 119:97 says, "Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day."
Psalm 119:104 says, "Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way."
There are two questions that I want you to consider today...
1. Do you truly love the law of God?
2. Do you hate every false way (those things that are opposed to the law of God)?
If you love God's law, then you're going to diligently study it, meditate upon it and obey it. You're not going to turn to the right hand or to the left. Instead, you're going to seek book, chapter and verse for all that you do.
If you hate every false way, then you're going to utilize every opportunity you have to teach those who are in error. You're going to appreciate sermons and studies which examine and condemn doctrinal error.
So do you love God's law and hate everything that opposes it? Or, like most people in the world today, are you lax in your attitude towards these things. Are you the kind of person that builds your life around the word and will of God, or like most people, do you rarely think about the teachings of the word of God? Which is it?
Wise man say, that "I love this/I hate that" is an idiomatic way of saying "I choose this instead of the mutually exclusive that." It's the same concept as when Jesus said "anyone who does not hate his Father and Mother cannot be my disciple."
ReplyDeleteA person cannot argue, after reading Psalm 119, that we are to be in any way tolerant of falsehood. Based on the entire Psalm, it is clear that we are to love God's law--not that we prefer it over the teachings of men--but that we literally adore the law of God.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with what you're saying, that sometimes the words "love" and "hate" indicate preference (as in Romans 9:13, that is not the case here.