“[D]o not be afraid. These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another, render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace, do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath; for all these are things that I hate, says the Lord” (Zech 8:15-17).

How many times have we heard from parents, teachers, or even loving religious folks that it’s wrong to hate? Religious people don’t hate; they love. Right?

But here God reminds us that we are in fact called to hate evil. “Those who love the Lord must hate evil,” Dennis Prager has reminded us for decades. And of course, that’s right. We must speak the truth and work for peace, but we who love what is good must also be spiritual warriors. “Prepare war,” we read in Joel. “Let all the soldiers draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weakling say, ‘I am a warrior.'” (Joel 3:9-10).

“Devis[ing] evil,” “lov[ing]…false oath[s]”–these are the “things” God rejects, and so must we as well. As we continue to confront the evils of our time, let us keep all of this in mind. We shall rightly order ourselves to the truth, love one another, work for peace, and stand firmly against evil. May we seek in all things to do God’s will and serve each other with fortitude and in charity.