¹⁴ Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. ¹⁵ Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.
— Amos 5:14-15 NIV
A Stern Warning
In the midst of a corrupt kingdom, this farmer named Amos from the Southern Kingdom of Judah was called by God to call the Northern Kingdom of Israel to repentance. And in these verses, we see three of the main things God wants for His people—as well as one message of hope.
3 things God wants for His people:
- Hate Evil
- Love Good
- Maintain Justice
And the hope of the prophet:
- That God Would Be With Them
Hate Evil
What does it mean to hate evil?
Well, it’s simple really—when you hate something you are typically disgusted by it, angered by it, and go out of your way to avoid it. You don’t even want its name to pass your lips. So when we hate evil, we are disgusted by it, often angered by it, and frequently go out of our way to avoid it. Or at least we should.
But it’s much easier to say we hate evil than to actually do that. We might say we hate evil, but in reality, we still believe that a little “white lie” never hurts anybody or that the boss won’t really miss that stapler on the desk.
Or some might lustfully look at a woman who’s not their wife and say, it was just a glance. Or read a “romance novel” filled with steamy images of people whom they aren’t married to and say, it’s okay, it’s only a book, at least it’s not porn.
You see, we often justify the evil we like because we enjoy it. But that’s not what God’s Word says we should do. And while the above Scripture is addressing legal corruption as the evil of choice, it is not limiting the principle to only that (see Amos 2:6-8 for a longer list of what The Lord was calling out through the prophet Amos).
Now, one last note. While it is right for us to be angered by evil, we should remember that the evil a person does and the person themselves are not the same thing. We can hate a person’s actions while still praying for them out of a genuine love for them as human beings and seeing their inherent value as a fellow bearer of God’s image.
Love Good
However, it is not enough to just detest evil and run away from it. We must also find ourselves running toward something better and that is what God calls good!
As we see in this verse, we should both seek good and love good, and this is a natural flow. If we love good, we will surely seek it out. But what does it mean to love good?
Loving good means that we pursue and promote what God says is good—love for our neighbor, justice, peace, care for the environment, and right living before God. In each of these areas, there is an opportunity to seek and engage in good or in evil. The choice is ours.
In an article by Ligonier Ministries on God’s Goodness and Kindness, R.C. Sproul defines what God’s goodness is and how we should reflect that:
“The goodness of God refers both to His moral purity and to His faithfulness in providing salvation for people enslaved to sin and misery. If our goodness is to be a reflection of His, we must be known for our love, our holiness, and our readiness to show mercy to others.”
Maintain Justice
Also in Amos 5:14-15, we see that God places a special attention on the way people are treated in legal matters.
We know from Leviticus 19:15 that God wants justice to be equal. This means not favoring the rich or highly reputable just because they are rich and have good reputations. But it also means not favoring the poor or those with not-so-good backgrounds. Each case should be investigated properly and each person should receive the justice due to them.
For this is the path that leads to life and the Lord’s mercy.
When we act in a way that honors God, loves His people, and seeks to maintain justice, we will find ourselves becoming more and more aware of God’s mercy on us.
Mercy for all the times that we didn’t hate evil, the times when we got mad at good, and the times when we perverted justice by sinning against God and His creation. The more we understand justice from God’s perspective, the more we begin to see how much mercy God has for us.
Though we were on the wrong side of the law, He pardoned us by coming down to earth to pay the penalty that we should have paid. He set us free and cleared our name before Himself (Colossians 1:13-14 ESV). It is our duty and great privilege to share in this blessing by forgiving those who (as Jesus would say) trespass against us (Matthew 6:14 ESV).
That God Would Be With Them
Finally, as we see from the second half of verses 14 and 15, this warning was not just one of condemnation but of hope.
“That God may be with you” and that He “…will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.”
Unfortunately, we know from reading the rest of their stories in the book of Kings that the Northern Kingdom of Israel was filled with wickedness and chose not to repent of their wicked ways.
This led them to exile as God had warned (see Deuteronomy Chapter 28) and soon after their brothers the Kingdom of Judah followed Suit. Will we learn from this lesson of the past what God truly wants? Will we turn from evil and seek good? Will we maintain justice in our dealings with others even outside of the courts?
If you have ever wondered how it is possible to love the things that God loves and seek the things that He seeks such as goodness, justice, and mercy, it is. All you need to do is submit your life to Jesus and let The Holy Spirit transform your lives.
For more from Tom, check out his book Logic Sanctity Deity
Is it rational to believe in God? Do we even need a God? If so, who is that God and where does Jesus fit into the picture?
It’s no use in denying that we as people are broken and that’s a problem we can’t fix on our own. However, a man named Jesus said He was God, claimed he came here to make things right again between us and Him; thus, mending what was broken inside us.
