Work On Your Hate Life

I’m sure the title of this note sounds a bit odd, if not outrageous. But I would submit to you that God commands us to hate and we don’t often think about it. He said, “Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good” (Romans 12:9).

To state the obvious about how most human minds and emotions work, it is easy to hate the evil that others do, but it is much harder to hate the evil we do. In fact, we often play it down and call our evil a weak moment or just a mistake, or worst of all, “I’m only human.”

Have you ever stopped to consider what God says He hates? And since we are called to be “imitators of God” (Eph. 5:1), it would behoove every believer to take note of the things God despises and learn to hate it as well.

1. Arrogance: “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD” (Prov 16:5). “There are six things that the LORD hates… haughty eyes” (Prov 6:16–17). God hates pride because it rivals His glory and rejects dependence on Him.

2. Lying: “A lying tongue… a false witness who utters lies” (Prov 6:17, 19). “Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD” (Prov 12:22). Falsehood attacks God’s nature as truth itself (John 14:6).

3. Violence and bloodshed: “Hands that shed innocent blood” (Prov 6:17). “The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence His soul hates” (Ps 11:5). God hates violence because it destroys those made in His image.

4. Injustice and oppression: “I hate, I reject your festivals… but let justice roll down like waters” (Amos 5:21, 24). “Differing weights and differing measures, both are abominable to the LORD” (Prov 20:10). Religious activity without justice provokes divine hatred.

5. Idolatry: “You shall not worship them or serve them… for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God” (Ex 20:5). “For they provoked the LORD to anger with their high places…and their graven images” (Ps 78:58). God hates idolatry because it steals the worship He alone deserves.

6. Evil intentions and schemes: “A heart that devises wicked plans” (Prov 6:18). “Woe to those who scheme iniquity who work out evil on their beds” (Micah 2:1). Sin begins in the heart before it shows itself in behavior.

7. Sowing discord among God’s people: “…one who spreads strife among brothers” (Prov 6:19). “Keep your eye on those who cause dissensions…and turn away from them” (Rom 16:17). God hates division because it fractures the body of Christ.

8. Hypocritical religion: “This people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lips, but they remove their hearts far from me” (Isa 29:13): “I hate, I reject your festivals nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies” and I “will not accept them and I will not even look at” them or “listen to the sound of your harps” (Amos 5:21–23). External worship without inward devotion is repulsive to God.

9. Divorce rooted in covenant betrayal: “For I hate divorce, says the LORD” (Mal 2:16). God hates unbiblical divorce because it violates covenant faithfulness and wounds His image-bearers.

10. Evil itself: “Hate evil, you who love the LORD” (Ps 97:10). “The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity” (Ps 5:5). God’s hatred is ultimately toward evil as rebellion against His holy nature.

How can we work on our hate life?

1. Love God supremely: “From your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way” (Ps 119:104). Right hatred of sin grows out of right love. We hate sin because it dishonors the One we love.

2. Fear the Lord: “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil” (Prov 8:13). Fearing God is a reverent awe that winces at what offends God.

3. See sin as God sees it: “Against you, You only, have I sinned” (Ps 51:4). A godly hatred recognizes sin first as a God-ward treason, not a personal failure.

4. Hate your own sin first: “But I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified” (1 Cor 9:27). “Wretched man that I am” (Rom 7:24). Biblical hatred of sin always begins inward, never merely outward.

5. Actively put sin to death: “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to” sin (Col 3:5). “But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Rom 8:13). Godly hatred is not passive disgust. It is Spirit-empowered warfare.

6. Love righteousness: “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness” (Ps 45:7; Heb 1:9). Hatred of sin grows strongest when paired with delight in holiness.

7. Maintain compassion for sinners: “Hate the sin, not the sinner” is not a verse—but the biblical balance is real: “And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh” (Jude 22–23). We hate what destroys people while longing for their redemption.

8. Fix your eyes on the cross: “And He himself bore our sins in His body on the cross” (1 Pet 2:24). Nothing teaches us to hate sin more rightly than seeing what it cost Christ. We hate sin most deeply where we love Christ most clearly.

As God’s redeemed people, let’s be known for our Spirit-formed hatred of sin that flows from love for Him, begins with our own hearts, and leads to holiness, humility, and righteous living.

Pastor Jeff

Foundation Faith Statement: #17 - Is there any way to escape punishment and be brought back into God’s favor?

Yes, to satisfy His justice, God Himself, out of sheer mercy, reconciles us to Himself and delivers us from sin and its punishment, by a Redeemer (Isaiah 53:10–11).