Hate?

I write and read many books so word definitions are important to me, as is using the right word to describe things. This past few weeks, defining God’s love has been convicting, but helpful and a joy. Now, the author of my devotional book turns my attention to hate. I am to love like God loves and hate what He hates.

The obvious is that God hates evil. Most of us do, yet evil needs to be defined too. We tend to put all that causes pain and discomfort into that category, but does God? I’m thinking how He uses trials to build virtue and steadfast perseverance in our lives, yet we might think those trials are evil, or at least not be joyful concerning them. Having personal ambitions fulfilled may not seem evil either, but He says that where “selfish ambition exists, there will be disorder and every vile practice.” (James 3:16)

Clearly though, God hates anything that defiles or threatens our faith in Him. He hates discord (but loves unity). He hates lies, pride, and all sin. But wait a minute, some sin like murder, stealing, adultery, etc. are obvious, but what about gossip or self-centeredness, or simply the sin of not relying on Him but running my own life? And what about failing to love others, or just ignoring Him and looking down on others? God hates sin, but sin is not always obvious. Sometimes what God hates is subtle.

Hate is sometimes connected to fear, anger, self-protection, devaluation, feeling trapped, being misunderstood, and wanting to destroy any source that threatens me in any way, but for those who believe in Jesus, we need to understand the heart of God and love what He loves. Otherwise, our ‘hatred’ can be one more sin to deal with.

In other words, I need to have an aversion to anything that opposes God. This could include what others say or do, but must begin in my own heart. If something in me resists or refuses Him, the NT clarifies how any personal anti-God attitudes must be at the top of my hate list.

Instead of a focus on hate, I always need to focus on Scripture and how the life and sacrificial death of Jesus Christ display the love of God. To respond to His love and to love like He does, I need His Spirit. I cannot manufacture it apart from the enabling of the Holy Spirit.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love . . . . So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (1 John 4:7-8; 16)

Knowing how He hates and responding or hating the same things is a bit more challenging. The OT Psalm 119 is clearer than the NT:

Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. (104)

I hate the double-minded, but I love your law. (113)

Therefore I consider all your precepts to be right; I hate every false way. (128)

I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law. (163)

I know Christians should not listen to false teachers or dismiss God’s laws as mere guidelines or think they have been (or should be) abolished. According to the OT, I’m supposed to have a strong dislike for all it says, yet remember that biblical hate is not “I hate mushrooms” — just as “I love chocolate” is not biblical love. His hate is stronger and easy to confuse with our kind of hate. Love requires humility, obedience, sacrifice and the Holy Spirit, but His kind of hate is more about having His heart, thinking His thoughts, and refusing to allow sin and lies to have any appeal at all.

PRAY: Jesus, I can see that focusing on Your love is key. Hate can be sinful unless Your love governs my thoughts and actions. I don’t want to focus on hate but do want to have a strong aversion to pride, wanting to do my own thing, and clinging to my way rather than Your way. You are my Savior and You want me saved from loving the wrong things or hating that which I should love. Increase my love for You and fill me with Your Spirit so that disliking anything that opposes love will be as You would have and express it.

PONDER: Psalm 119:101–104, and commit it to memory. Put it on my lock screen to see each morning.