Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you? Psalm 139:21
What you love and what you hate reveals a great deal about your character. Why? Simply put, you can’t be for something without being against its opposite. When you love your family, you stand in strong opposition to anything which would threaten or destroy it.
Long ago the psalmist wrote, “Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you?” (Psalm 139:21). This man hated what God hates and loved what He loves. Surprised to learn there are things which God hates? You shouldn’t be. There’s an old expression that goes, “Get your ducks lined up.” I’m not sure how that translates into other languages, but it translates into real life. It means you are consistent in what you love and what you hate. And as a result, you may well find yourself in the company of the minority whose voice cries out against wrong, much like did John the Baptist in the wilderness.
So, the question confronts us: “What does God hate?” The answer may surprise you. Actually, the list of what God hates is far longer than I could address in the brief remarks of today’s commentary. But use the following as a checklist to see if you hate what He hates.
First, says Proverbs 8:13, “To fear the Lord is to hate evil.” So, immediately, you find yourself standing in a rather small circle because most people today have a passive indifference to wrongdoing. “It’s not my fault,” they say, when they see wrong and evil in the world. Why oppose evil? If you don’t, it can overwhelm you. A German pastor once wrote that the Gestapo came for the Jews, but he didn’t protest because he wasn’t a Jew. He said they came for the politicians, but he didn’t oppose them because he wasn’t a politician. He then said, “When they finally came for me, there was no one left to oppose them.”
God says, “I love justice … I hate robbery and iniquity” (Isaiah 61:8). Today, a passive indifference silences many who see wrongdoing—in the school, in the neighborhood, in government, in your workplace—we look the other way thinking, “Well, I don’t want to be involved.” You feel compelled to speak out when you hate what God hates and love what He loves.
In the book of Amos, there is an interesting statement as God says He hates their religious feasts (Amos 5:21). Surprised? No, God isn’t a killjoy who doesn’t like a good party. He was the one who instituted the great feasts of the Old Testament which included dancing, drinking, and celebration. What He opposed was turning the feasts into orgies and debaucheries when He was forgotten and pushed aside.
Today’s time allows for just one more thought. It’s powerful, too, in light of our culture today. In a poignant, forceful statement, God said, “‘I hate divorce … and I hate a man’s covering himself with violence as well as with his garments.” (Malachi 2:16). Surprised at the intensity of that one? It tells us that God isn’t very happy with a lot of us today who have forgotten that God is not only a loving God but He also hates some things–at times the very things we have grown to accept.
If you get your ducks lined up with what God loves and hates, you will find the number who stand with you may be small, but you are in the company of the Almighty Himself. It is far better to walk in the light with God than to walk with men who stumble over truth, decency, and justice, for one plus God is always a majority. It has always been that way, it shall always be that way in the future.
Resource reading: John 3:16-21
