will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the spirit will not be forgiven.” Deliberate and continued sin against the enlightening spirit of Jehovah is not forgivable; defiance of the spirit’s manifest operation is not pardonable. When persons persist in wrongdoing after it has been completely exposed to them, when it becomes so ingrained as to be an inseparable part of their make-up, then hatred for the person that lovingly clings to it as well as the sin must be one’s feeling. How else can it be, when the person and the sin become inseparably and permanently merged?—Matt. 12:31.

Such incorrigible ones reverse the injunction, “Hate the evil, and love the good,” becoming those “who hate the good, and love the evil.” No intercession is to be made for them. “Pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear thee,” says Jehovah. God himself will be “repaying to his face the one who hates him by obliterating him. He will not hesitate toward the one who hates him. He will repay him to his face.” Some reach a point when even strong discipline will not pry loose the evil that has become a part of them. It is no longer possible to destroy the evil and preserve the persons. Both must be destroyed together, since there is no separating them. The evil works truly express and reflect an incorrigibly evil heart. Such persons personify evil, just as God does love. To such Jesus said: “You are from your father the Devil and you wish to do the desires of your father.” In Matthew chapter 23 he scathingly denounced them and asked: “Serpents, offspring of vipers, how are you to flee from the judgment of Gehenna?”—Amos 5:15; Mic. 3:2; Jer. 7:16, AS; Deut. 7:10; John 8:44; Matt. 23:33.

When the wicked hater of Jehovah will not separate himself from his wickedness and his hatred, how can we do it in our proper hatred of his sinfulness? “Is it to the wicked that help is to be given, and is it for those hating Jehovah that you should have love? And for this there is indignation against you from the person of Jehovah.” When the hatred is intense and entrenched and inseparable from the person, the case goes beyond the enmity due to inherited sin or ignorance that can be dealt with patiently in love: “Do I not hate those who are intensely hating you, O Jehovah, and do I not feel a loathing for those revolting against you? With a complete hatred I do hate them. They have become to me real enemies.”—2 Chron. 19:2; Ps. 139:21, 22.

But these incorrigible ones that personify hateful evil make themselves manifest. Generally we can and should look upon the masses of humanity alienated from God as Jesus did: “On seeing the crowds [seeking him] he felt tender affection for them, because they were skinned and knocked about like sheep without a shepherd.” We can preach to them in love, while hating their sins. When told to hate the evil and not the correctible doer of it, it may seem difficult to do. But when you stop and reflect you see that in your own case you have been doing it all your life. Do it unto others also.—Matt. 9:36.

Ready for the Ax?

“Inward religion, without the outward show of it,” once stated English clergyman Ralph Venning, “is like a tree without fruit, useless; and the outward show of religion, without inward sincerity, is like a tree without heart, lifeless.”