Love What God Loves But Hate What God Hates

by Mike Ratliff

For you, O LORD, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods. O you who love the LORD, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name! (Psalms 97:9-12 ESV)

As I drove home from work today, I saw a bumper sticker on a SUV in another lane. I had seen this particular bumper sticker before so I was not surprised by it. However, for some reason it caused me to focus on the message it was attempting to convey. The bumper sticker read, “Hate is not a family value.” Now, I know and I am sure most of you know that that statement is meant to cause those who stand firm for family values and parental rights pertaining to the exposing of their children to the Homosexual agenda in school or any other public institution to become intimidated. The message conveys the idea that those taking this stance are expressing hatred towards people who only want to be accepted for how God made them. Of course, the Bible clearly teaches us that that concept is a lie and that Homosexuality is a set of perverse, sinful, sexual behaviors that are condemned by God as an abomination. It also says that any who practice them will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

The Apostle John wrote in 1 John 4:11 that God is love and in vv7-8 he states emphatically that genuine Christians will also be partakers and givers of that same love. However, love cannot exist in a vacuum. If one loves, then he or she will also hate. The hate will be directed at anything or anyone who threatens the object of that love. God does hate and all who belong to Him are called to hate what He hates. The following is a list from the book of Proverbs of some things that God hates.

There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers. My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching. (Proverbs 6:16-20 ESV)

God hates a proud look. This is a manifestation of pride. In Hebrew this phrase, “haughty eyes,” literally means “lofty eyes.” The prideful has his or her nose in the air and their eyes uplifted. When pride fills the heart, it does manifest itself in the mannerisms of the person. God hates those who disdain everyone and everything. The sin of pride is probably listed here in this passage first because it is the root of all disobedience and rebellion against God. When I was in the US Navy in the early 1970’s, I was stationed at the Bureau of Naval Personnel in our nation’s capital. There was a fellow who worked in another department on a floor above ours who was probably the most arrogant person I have ever met. He was also blatantly homosexual. The few times I had to deal with him, he made sure I understood how inferior I was to him by not doing his job, but instead deliberately giving me the run around.

When I first arrived at that station in November 1973, I was considered a ‘boot’ so I had to do all of the unpleasant things that those who were there before me did not want to do. That included dealing with that person in question. However, unlike those who passed this task on to me, I was probably just as arrogant as him and had a very short fuse. I was not a believer at that time and so much of my behavior back then is painful for me to recount. What I did was go talk to my Chief. As I spoke to him, I did not know that the Commander who was over us could hear our conversation. I told my Chief about the runaround that fellow gave us every time we tried to get information for our work from his department.  Those over him were always upset with us because they had to continually redo orders that should have been given to us each day, but the process was being short circuited by this fellow when we tried to get help with understanding what the detailer was actually requesting. My Chief cleared his throat and I stopped complaining because we both detected our commanding officer entering the office. He asked which department was the problem and whom it was that was doing this. My Chief looked at me and I answered the question.

The next time I had to go to that department to get help understanding what was being requested I thought that fellow’s stare was going to set me on fire. However, he did his job, I was able to connect with the detailer, and get things straightened out. A few days later, I was walking down the hall on his floor and saw him standing in the alcove where the pop machines were. However, he was not alone. His Chief had him cornered in there and was obviously explaining things to him so that he could not misunderstand it. I overheard this, “Your arrogance has to go. You are going to do your job or I will put you on report. If I hear one more thing from anyone about this, you are going to Captain’s Mast! Do you understand?” I thought I would enjoy it, but I really did not. I simply made an enemy. I was overjoyed a few months later when I was transferred to Data Operations in a totally different wing.

Many years later after God saved me, I reexamined much of that old behavior of mine and that of those with whom I had conflicts like that fellow. I was no less arrogant than him, however, when God saved me that died. Isn’t this the point? God hates arrogance and pride in people because those things are markers of our rebellion. When He regenerates us, we are new creations who are reborn and the rest of our lives He grows us unto Christlikeness.

God also hates a lying tongue. God is a God of truth who cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18). That He loves truth and hates lying is illustrated in the account of Ananias and Sapphira, who lied to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:1-11). God took their lives as an example to the early church of His holiness. Christians are expected to be truthful even when it appears that it will be costly.

Verse 17 says that God hates “hands that shed innocent blood.” God hates people with murderous, cruel dispositions who will kill rather than be denied or frustrated of what they want. God hates murder because He created life and established its sanctity. Therefore, God ordained that when someone takes a life, he should pay with his own life (Genesis 9:6). Now consider the Abortion industry. Like Homosexuality, it has attained its own set of “rights” under the law. This would include euthanasia as well. Do you remember that case a few years ago when a Florida judge ruled that Terri Shivo’s husband could ask that she be starved to death because she was an invalid? Yes, our government, which is supposed to protect its citizens and deal justly with everyone, has become corrupt and diluted by compromise. Our political system is geared towards appeasing those with perceived political clout. Christians must stand firm against these things no matter who threatens us to back away. Evil is evil and we must hate it just as God does. All who compromise here will be held accountable when they stand before the Lord.

God hates a heart that devises wicked plans. This is a description of a wicked heart. God hates it. I have met a few people in my time who fit this perfectly. These people are reprobates and have no fear of God because their conscience is seared. They plan at great length on how to do evil. These people are constantly devising new ways of sinning. Not many weeks ago, I was having to delete several hundred spam comments from Possessing the Treasure each week. I would get close to a hundred a day. Most were filth or ‘phishing’. Then all of sudden it stopped. I now get five or six a week. Our security officer where I work sent me an email that confirmed that one Internet hosting company had been identified to contain millions of spam robots. The FCC shut it down through a court order. With it also went all those attempts to seduce people into replying to emails that were deviously designed to get them to give up financial and personal information for use by these swindlers. I believe that those who lost their robots or ‘bots’ will simply find a new host and begin again. This is devious, wicked planning in action and God hates it.

God also hates “feet that make haste to run to evil. The difference between this and normal sinning is that normal sinning is described in the Bible as a falling or a tripping. But the mischievous person purposely runs as fast as he can-he or she is in a hurry to sin. Examine yourself my brethren. Do you hate the sin that so easily trips you or are you so compromised that you hasten to partake of it? God hates this because it is a mark of enslavement to the flesh, which is rebellion against Him. Many of the emergent folks attempt to say that God is okay with our sin since it has been paid for at the cross. Nope, He is not okay with it. Our attitude towards sin must be the same as His and He hates it.

Another thing God hates is “a false witness who breathes out lies.” God hates people who put the blame on an innocent party. David, Jesus, and Paul experienced accusations by false witnesses (Psalm 27:12; Matthew 26:59-61; Acts 25:7-8). Bearing false witness obstructs justice, destroys reputations, and even destroys lives in some cases. False prophets are guilty of doing this as well. They will usually have a list of people who have stood up to them and revealed their heresy to the Church. They will list them as “False Prophets.” I am on one that I know of because I refused to allow them to take over my blog. I looked at others on their list of false prophets and saw that I was in good company. John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, John Piper, Jonathan Edwards, John Bunyan, John Calvin to name just a few were listed there as well. These false prophets are quick to call what is truth a lie and what is a lie the truth. I have also debated with some from the Emergent and Neo-Evangelist groups who twist and misuse scripture in order to beat down whoever they are trying to silence. God hates this. I have learned that it is a total waste of time to even engage them in debate. They do not listen and I am not going to compromise so that is that.

God hates those who sow discord among brothers. These troublemakers create divisions where there should be unity. These would also include those who bear false witness and breath out lies. These would also include those who attempt to divide God’s people on the issues of Homosexual rights or the right to life. God hates this.

The issue for us is that much of the visible Church has been compromised by its love of the world. The compromised professing Christians do not know the Bible. Their concept of Christianity is that is a set of religious works that earn points from God. It is all about performance and the criteria of it is based on Man’s view of God and what is right and wrong within that view. It is not biblical at all. We are commanded in scripture to not love the world. We must be in the world, but we cannot be part of it. If we love the world then we will also take on a love for the things above that God hates. We must love what God loves and hate what He hates. He hates compromise with the world and its ways. We must do the same.

Soli Deo Gloria!