Hate
Hate is ugly. It motivates human beings to do ugly things, it makes those humans ugly themselves. This is the picture painted in scripture, in hundreds of passages that use some form of the word. This command in the Law says it:
You must not harbor hatred against your brother. Rebuke your neighbor directly, and you will not incur guilt because of him. (Leviticus 19:17 HCSB)
Don’t you find this interesting? The alternative to hating someone is to rebuke them. (Some versions say “reason with” them.) The implication is that there is some sort of conflict, and we’re told to work it out—rather than letting bad feelings fester and grow into a hate filled heart.
It’s not only humans who hate. God hates too, although there aren’t a lot of places He says so, and His hatreds are different. What God hates:
Wrongdoing and injustice: “For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing.” (Isaiah 61:8 NIV)
People who embrace violence: “The Lord examines the righteous, but the wicked, those who love violence, he hates with a passion.” (Psalm 11:5 NIV)
Idolatrous worship: “Yet I persistently sent to you all my servants the prophets, saying, ‘Oh, do not do this abomination that I hate!’ But they did not listen or incline their ear, to turn from their evil and make no offerings to other gods.” (Jeremiah 44:4-5 ESV)
Hypocritical worship: “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them.” (Amos 5:21-22 ESV)
There are some additional passages that reinforce these, but as I said there’s not a lot. And then there’s this:
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.
(Proverbs 6:16-19 NKJV)
This is a chiasm—a symmetric poetic structure in the form a-b-c-d-c-b-a. The central point is in the literal center (the ‘d’ item): God hates a heart that devises evil. From such a heart arise hands and feet that do violence and evil (the ‘c’ items), lies (the ‘b’ items), and pride—which is interestingly paired with sowing discord among brethren (the ‘a’ items).
In the New Testament, there’s only one thing Jesus says he hates. In his letters to the churches in Revelation he says: “Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” (Revelation 2:6) He mentions it again in verse 15. What does he mean? From the context of what he says to these two churches, we can conclude it is false teaching that has crept into the churches. Jesus’s response to this is not mild! He hates it.
It should be obvious we can’t do a thorough study of this subject here. You can do further exploration on your own or with your study group. Just to extract the most obvious point: It’s worth knowing what God hates, and it behooves us to not be part of what He hates. We do not want to be caught up in wrongdoing, particularly violence. We do not want to mix idolatry or false teaching in with the true worship of God. We do not want to be hypocritical. We don’t want to devise evil, do evil to others, spread lies, or foster discord. God hates these things. We do not want to be what He hates.
And we don’t want to be haters ourselves. We need to recognize and admit we have the potential within ourselves to be hateful, just like any other human being. It comes easily and naturally to us, but that can’t be an excuse for giving it a home in our hearts!
Instead: “O you who love the LORD, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.” (Psalm 97:10)
Love, Paul