God’s Hatred in Favor of Those He Loves…

How Can God Love Me, When I Do What He Hates? (Romans 7:15)

Proverbs, a book about the importance of wisdom, was primarily written by the wisest man in the Bible, Solomon. And if you know about Solomon and his life story, you’ll see the irony of his proverbs as they point out things a wise person does or doesn’t do—much of which he appears to have not listened to his own advice. He’s either a giant hypocrite or preaching from experience…

As much as God loves us, is as much as He hates sin. It’s because of His love for us that He hates such things that provoke the destruction of us and our relationship with Him.

As much as God loves us, is as much as He hates sin. It’s because of His love for us that He hates such things that provoke the destruction of us and our relationship with Him. Proverbs 6:16-19 lists seven things that God hates especially. They are: 1) haughty eyes (proud look) 2) lying tongue 3) hands that kill the innocent 4) heart that plots evil (evil thoughts) 5) feet that race to do wrong (sinful actions) 6) false witness who pours out lies 7) a person who sows discord in a family 

1)    God hates pride—eyes, attitude, mouth… The very first sin committed (before the Bible was even written) was pride, when the fallen angel Lucifer (Satan) wanted to be like God. And he ultimately successfully tempted Adam and Eve to want to be like God also. Pride is often the beginning of the end. It’s a slippery slope when you concentrate only on what others think of you instead of what God thinks (Psalm 10:4; Proverbs 11:2; Proverbs 16:18; Proverbs 21:4; Isaiah 2:12; Romans 12:3; Philippians 2:3; James 4:6).

It’s a slippery slope when you concentrate only on what others think of you instead of what God thinks. 

2)    God hates lying. Again, the devil is the first example of this. In Genesis 3, the serpent deceives Eve about taking a bite of the fruit from the forbidden tree, and look at the consequences of those lies—man fell just as the serpent did. [Are you seeing a pattern of the prime example the serpent is for sin?] (Psalm 78:36; Psalm 120:2; Proverbs 12:22; John 8:44; Colossians 3:9; 1 Timothy 4:2)

3)    God hates murder. God loves all of His children, and when we kill His children, we are killing a part of Him (Genesis 9:6; 1 John 4:20). Take note, though, that murder biblically speaking, isn’t just physically taking the life of someone. 1 John 3:15 says that we are committing murder when we hate others. Every thought of disdain or contempt you’ve had against someone is equivalent to killing them. [Who here should be serving prison time according to that definition?] Again, the devil—the serpent—is the destroyer of life. Because of his lying and temptations of Eve, death befell us. Emotionally—fear, shame and guilt (Genesis 3:7-8), spiritually—fear of God (Genesis 3:8), relationally between a man and wife (Genesis 3:16), environmentally and economically (Genesis 3:17), and biologically/physically (Genesis 3:19). But perhaps the worst death was to our relationship with God Himself (Genesis 3:23 (do you realize that before the serpent deceived them, they walked in the Garden with the LORD?!? After their deception, He banished them from the Garden and His presence!)) (Exodus 21:12; Leviticus 19:17-18; Leviticus 24:17; Deuteronomy 5:17; Deuteronomy 30:7; Proverbs 10:12; Proverbs 10:18; Proverbs 26:24-26; Matthew 5:21-26; 1 John 2:11).

4)    God hates impure thoughts. If we want to transform our actions, we have to transform our minds (Proverbs 23:12). Evil thoughts devise evil deeds. The serpent was able to place doubt into Eve’s mind, and that doubt led to her action of eating the fruit AND giving it to Adam (Genesis 3:6). (Proverbs 15:26; Matthew 15:18-19; Mark 7:21-22; Luke 6:43-45; Romans 2:5)

If we want to transform our actions, we have to transform our minds (Proverbs 23:12).

5)    God hates wrongdoing. This piggybacks off impure thoughts because what we do is directly related to how we think. Again, see Genesis 3:6—Eve believed the serpent and therefore ate the fruit. She thought the impure thought (that God was deceiving them) and she ate the forbidden fruit (she bought into the lie and acted on it!) (Psalm 50:19; Psalm 73:7; Proverbs 4:16; Job 4:8; Isaiah 5:20; Isaiah 32:6; Matthew 12:34-35; John 3:20; Romans 6:12-13; 2 Timothy 2:22)

6)    God hates intentional, hurtful lies. This is more than just lying. This is falsifying statements with the specific intention of hurting someone. This is perjury. This is swearing against God. And this is exactly what the serpent did when he told Eve God didn’t want them to be like Him, knowing good and evil (Genesis 3:5). (Exodus 20:16; Leviticus 19:12; Proverbs 14:5; Proverbs 19:5; Proverbs 27:12; Zechariah 8:17; Matthew 5:33-37)

7)    God hates discord among His people; gossip and complaining. This is aggravating others in the hopes of sharing or causing frustration. Again, the serpent caused this with his half-truths (which is typically what starts discord—only relaying partial evidence or one-sided depictions). By casting doubt in Eve with “Did God really say…?” and by swearing she wouldn’t die (which technically wasn’t immediate death). Sometimes we think sharing our frustrations with others is helpful, but what it really comes down to is that we should only be sharing our thoughts, our frustrations, our grumblings, our complaints, etc., with God. (Psalm 55:22; Proverbs 20:3; Proverbs 26:20; John 6:41-43; Romans 16:17; 1 Corinthians 3:3; Ephesians 4:31; 2 Timothy 2:14) [For more about complaining, read here.]

Did you notice that all of these abominations have to do with how we relate with others? That’s because He wants us to love others (John 13:34-35; John 15:12, 17), and we can’t love them when we’re committing any of these seven sins. Jesus died to unify all of us with Him and God (John 17:21). How dare we try to break us apart? Who do we think we are? 

Isn’t it awesome that the sin that started it all was pride (Lucifer), and the love that ends it all is humility (Jesus)? The devil is the father of lies (John 8:44) and Jesus is the Truth (John 8:32; John 14:6). The opposite of hate is love, and God is love (1 john 4:8); the opposite of to murder is to give life, and Jesus is the giver of life (John 1:4; John 3:16; John 8:32). Jesus can change our hearts and give us new desires; He will transform us—our minds and our actions (Jeremiah 32:38; Ezekiel 36:26; 2 Corinthians 5:17). Won’t you accept what He’s done for you, and let Him into your heart? Stop living a life that God hates. Draw close to Him, and He will draw close to you (James 4:8).

...the sin that started it all was pride (Lucifer), & the love that ends it all is humility (Jesus)? The devil is the father of lies & Jesus is the Truth.  Jesus...will transform us—our minds and our actions.

James 4:1-17