I’m going to toss this out there with the full realization that it may make some people uncomfortable. Much of modern evangelicism wants to talk about only God’s grace and his love. Both are real. Both are amazing beyond our belief. Should he withdraw either of them, we have no hope of salvation. Sadly, the spotlight is often so focused on grace and love that other aspects of spiritual reality lie off-stage, forgotten in total darkness.

One of those forgotten realities deals with wicked people. Psalm 11:5 (ESV) says:

The LORD tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

God can’t hate non-existent things. He hates the wicked (Psalm 5:5). Amidst the grace, love, and generally get your feels going talk, it seems we sometimes forget this fact:

THERE. ARE. WICKED. PEOPLE.
You probably know some and hesitate to recognize them as such. I say that because, in my fifty+ years, I have only called one, single, solitary person on the that I’ve known personally as “wicked,” and it was one of the most difficult things I’ve done.

I’ve recently realized I should be open to recognizing folks as wicked – more often and much more quickly. Not doing so leads to harm as much, if not more, than calling too many people wicked too quickly.