The Place of Hate in a Christian’s Life

It goes without saying that Christians do not associate hate with the characteristics God would have his children possess.  Christianity is about love for God and for our fellow man.  Hate would seem to be the antithesis of all Christianity stands for and yet there are things a Christian must come to hate if he is to become like God in his character.  If God hates a thing can I as his child love the thing he hates?  "Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?" (Amos 3:3 NKJV)  God's child must learn to hate what God hates to walk with God.  Please note I say things, not people.  We strive to hate the things people do, not the individuals.

One of the best known passages in the Bible regarding things God hates is found in Prov. 6:16-19, “These six things the LORD hates,  Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:  A proud look,  A lying tongue,  Hands that shed innocent blood,  A heart that devises wicked plans,  Feet that are swift in running to evil,  A false witness who speaks lies,  And one who sows discord among brethren.” (NKJV) 

Another very well-known passage is found in Malachi 2:16, “The Lord God of Israel says that he hates divorce.” (NKJV) 

The Lord says he hates thinking “evil in your heart against your neighbor.” (Zech. 8:17 NKJV) 

In a prophecy of Jesus found in Psalms 45:7 the Psalmist says, “You love righteousness and hate wickedness.” (NKJV)  If you turn to Heb. 1:9 you will find this Old Testament passage quoted and applied to Jesus.

This short list is far from an all-inclusive list of the things God hates, for example we know he hates idolatry, but all the things he hates can be summarized by saying God hates sin.  We must also come to hate it if we are to be like him. 

There are, however, some passages found in the scriptures that tell us specifically things we ought to hate.  “A righteous man hates lying.” (Prov. 13:5 NKJV)  A wise man will hate “pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth.” (Prov. 8:13 NKJV) 

In Rev. 2:6 the church at Ephesus was commended for hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans which the Lord said, “I also hate.” (NKJV) 

The bottom line is we must come to hate all sin.  “You who love the Lord, hate evil!” (Psalms 97:10 NKJV)  “Hate evil, love good.” (Amos 5:15 NKJV)  “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.” (Prov. 8:13 NKJV) 

We might talk a little bit about hate.  When we think of hate we generally think first of hate directed against people, ill will accompanied by deep emotion to the point the person hated is detested and we wish him/her nothing good.  However, the word hate can mean more than one thing so one must beware of how the word is used in context to determine its true meaning in each instance.  Even in the use of the word as already given one must remember not all persons hated are equally hated with the same passion and to the same degree. 

Sometimes all the word hate means is an aversion to something evil.  For example, I hate poison ivy and sunburns.  One is to hate in scriptural language "iniquity" (Heb. 1:9 ASV). 

Another usage expresses a preference for one thing over another.  For example, I hate pecan pie compared to cherry pie.  In the New Testament one hates his/her parents, even his own life also, in comparison to his love for Christ (Luke 14:26).  Nowhere does the New Testament teach hatred of one's parents or of one's own life, just the opposite (see Matt. 15:4, Eph. 6:2-3, Eph. 5:28-29). 

There are those today here in America, and their numbers are increasing, who see the Bible as a book of hatred because it condemns sin in the flesh (sin in humanity).  They are unwilling to admit the actions they are engaged in are sin and do not want to hear it or hear it preached.  The only sin they can see is the Bible itself, a book of hatred from their point of view because it is intolerant of the sin in their life. 

Many of them would like to see hate speech legislation enacted to control any condemnation of what the Bible calls sin.  They are at war with God, with Christ, with the Bible, and with all Christians who hold to the word of God and they are growing in political power.  Perhaps that will change; time will tell. 

God is not a God of hate but of love.  He is "not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV) which is one reason the earth still stands today, because of God's longsuffering toward sinners.  "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16 NKJV)  "'For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,' says the Lord God.  'Therefore turn and live!'" (Ezek. 18:32 NKJV)  This has always been God's plea to man—turn from sin to me and live.  Jesus is "the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him." (Heb. 5:9 NKJV)  That excludes no one except for those who prefer their own way of life to God's.

Race, age, gender, nationality, intelligence, talents, looks, education, social class, or standing, no one is excluded from eternal salvation save for those who just will not have it because of their preference for self over God.  God is a gracious and generous God.  "For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon you." (Psalm 86:5 NKJV)

A God who loves and who is good cannot tolerate that which is unloving and evil.  Only God as God has the knowledge or ability to know what is best for man, only he knows right from wrong for we can only know as he reveals this knowledge to us.  We are all born knowing nothing.  As human beings, we are all limited in every aspect of our life even as we grow and acquire knowledge and understanding.  There is only so much we can know; only so much we can do.  We are continually changing for the better or the worse.  God does not change.  "For I am the Lord, I do not change." (Mal. 3:6 NKJV)  Who God is, what he is, his nature, his character, cannot change.  God cannot quit being God.

Gamaliel gave good advice to the men of Israel in Acts 5:39 when he told them they could not fight against God and win.  One will either fight against God and lose or bring his will into accord with the Lord's will and be found as a friend of God.  The ramifications of the choice made are eternal and cannot be altered once our final breath departs from us.

In bringing our will in line with the Lord's will we must learn to love what he loves and hate what he hates.  While God hates sin he does not hate the sinner for he has done everything in the world he could possibly do to save the sinner except for saving the sinner in his sins unrepentant.  God would have to love sin (evil) to do that.  What would be good about a God who would save an unrepentant Hitler or Stalin?

In 1 Cor. 2:16 Paul says, "We have the mind of Christ." (NKJV)  Let us love what Christ loved and hate what he hated. 

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Ignorance Does Not Excuse Sin

God does not consider ignorance an excuse for sin and will not overlook a sin because you or I were ignorant of the sin when we committed it.  The verse that teaches this is found in Lev. 5:17, “If a person sins, and commits any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the Lord, though he does not know it, yet he is guilty and shall bear his iniquity.” (NKJV)  (See also Lev. 4:1-2, 13, 22, 27 and Lev. 5:2 and 5:15 bearing in mind as you read that to sin unintentionally in these verses is to sin in ignorance.)

God’s nature is such that he cannot bear nor tolerate sin.  The Psalmist said, in prophecy of Jesus, “You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions.” (Psalm 45:7 NKJV)  Jesus hates wickedness and wickedness is just another name for sin.  God’s people are also to hate evil.  “You who love the Lord, hate evil!” (Psalm 97:10 NKJV)  That is what it will take within us to develop a Christ-like character.  “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.” (Prov. 8:13 NKJV)  “Hate evil, love good.” (Amos 5:5 NKJV)

Since, as the Psalmist says in Psalms 119:172, “all your commandments are righteousness” (NKJV) deviation from them, whether it be intentional or not, is unrighteousness, thus evil, thus the thing God cannot tolerate and hates.  In Isaiah 61:8 the Lord says, “For I, the Lord, love justice.” (NKJV)  Thus when Jesus returns to judge the world he will be judging it in righteousness. (Acts 17:31) 

It is obvious that if God had not loved us and intervened on our behalf his righteousness would have demanded our condemnation for our sins, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23 NKJV)  Fortunately, God does love us and did intervene for us by sending Jesus into the world to be a propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10) which simply means Jesus paid the penalty for our sins so that we will not have to.  This allowed God to be just in punishing sin, for in Jesus and the cross he did punish it, and yet give unto us a way to be saved through faith in Jesus.  This is the gospel story.

We need to make applications of these truths regarding sin and ignorance.  What do we learn?

(1) The person who has never heard the gospel is lost.  We all have a tendency to say to ourselves, based on emotion, not the truth of God’s word, that if a person lives in a remote land far away where the gospel has not been taught and/or it is not readily available to him he will be saved without the gospel.  The Bible teaches just the opposite.

Why go preach the gospel anywhere if a person is saved without it?  Why bother a man if he can be saved, and already is, without the gospel?  If a man is saved without the gospel it is better to leave him that way than to teach him the gospel.  Why?  Because if you teach him the gospel and he rejects it he will be lost.

Why did God command the gospel be preached in all the world to every creature (Mark 16:15 NKJV) if it is not needed?  If a man can be saved in his sins then the conclusion must be that sin is no big deal and Jesus died for nothing.  Do we believe that?

(2)  Another lesson learned is that there is an enormous burden upon Christians to preach the gospel throughout every corner of the world no matter how remote.  If a person is lost without the gospel and we were commanded to take the gospel to them (the Great Commission) but did not nor did we make any efforts to do so then what becomes not only of those who did not hear but to those of us who made no effort that they might hear?

(3)  Another lesson we learn from this is that if ignorance is not an excuse that God will accept then it is our duty to study and work as hard as we can to learn all we can about God’s word.  We accept the fact we will be saved by God’s grace and not by perfection in commandment keeping and rejoice in that but, that having been said, what about the individual that takes a lackadaisical attitude toward learning God’s will and obeying his commands?  Does God’s grace cover man’s indifference?

Does a man want to try and go to heaven as one who never cared enough about God and his will to try and learn his commands so he could obey them?  I fear such a man may well meet up with 2 Tim. 2:15 on the Day of Judgment, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Tim. 2:15 NKJV)  The indifferent man has not been much of a worker in God’s word.

God’s grace covers only a certain class of Christians and that class does not include the lukewarm and indifferent.  Jesus described the church at Laodicea as wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked (Rev. 3:17) and says, “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.” (Rev. 3:16 NKJV)  God’s grace is not for the lukewarm, indifferent, and disobedient unless and until they repent.

In closing I reiterate ignorance does not excuse sin with God.  We have an obligation to live a life of knowledge which means for all of us it is time to get the Bible out and read and study it.  The old King James Version says, “Study to show thyself approved to God.” (2 Tim. 2:15)  Let us not sin because of willful ignorance of God’s word--willful in that we prove ourselves to be too indifferent and lazy to study and try to learn from it. 

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