Love and Hate

“I hate those who are double-minded, but I love Your law.”  The double-minded do not trust God, and therefore their thoughts are vain.  One of the things I love most about the Puritans is that they consistently get down to important principles.  They never remain on the surface.  Here we have a good example of that.  From this verse, Thomas Manton contends: “There are in men two great influencing affections, love and hatred; one enables us to choose and pursue things, the other to reject and flee things.  The great work of grace is to fix these affections upon proper objects."  This verse teaches us to bestow our love on God’s law and to hate whatever is contrary to it.  If someone professes to Love God, but does not hate evil, their profession is not sincere.  The one produces the other.  The great work of grace in our hearts is to enable us to love God and to hate evil.  That is a brilliant insight, one worthy of careful consideration.