Hi John,
I really enjoyed your sermon on the 3rd commandment (Ex. 20:7): “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” You were explaining how someone takes the Lord’s name in vain and how that the only way you can take his name is to be born into His family (by receiving his spirit with the evidence of speaking in another tongues).
I have heard you speak on this matter so many times over the years but this time it went in so deep and I felt it so strong inside of me, like I have never felt it before. It was wonderful. I got up the next morning early and sat down to do some reading in the bible. I started reading in Psalm 91, which is wonderful. Then I turned to Psalm’s 139 and started reading there, and I read to this verse (20) “for they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain.” A light bulb went off in my head. Gods own people are his enemies! They are the ones who take his name in vain, because they are the only ones who have his name at all.
I know I have heard that before from you, but it was so clear and focused to me at this point from what you said the night before that it just jumped off of the page and devoured me. It was so pure and clean. Then when I read the next verses, I felt the same way he did, very strongly (21-22): “Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies.”
I count them mine enemies as well.
I also thought about this verse this morning in Mat 5:44 “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”
You can only know how to have a perfect hatred and a love for your brother at the same time, if you yourself are being led by the same spirit that created both perfect love and perfect hatred. There is no other way any one can know how to do this in this world without God leading them. God help me and us to do just this thing every day in our lives.
Bro.
Stuart
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Dear Brother Stuart:
For a long time now, I have thought about perfect hatred and perfect love. I have found that there is little or no difference between them. I remember being young and preaching to the old saints that perfect hatred will cause us to treat people the same way that perfect love does. Human hatred and human love differ greatly. But consider how Jesus said God treats both the evil and the good. The same rain falls on them all, but the purposes for that rain are nothing alike. How many times have we seen the Spirit bless someone who was backslidden in heart, trying to fool the congregation as to where he or she really stood with God! Undiscerning souls looking on such things do not sense the difference between that curse in the form of a blessing and the blessings that were falling on the upright, but it is real.
When we hate with perfect hatred, we bless those who curse us and refrain from reproving their evil deeds. Perfect hatred is deadly; it withholds correction from those who have gone astray and blesses them instead. But perfect love rebukes, chastens, and guides. In fact, it scourges and commands. But in the end, it saves.
jdc