Hate is a strong word.
Hate is a word that we do not toss around lightly.
Hate is not a word often associated with God. We always here about God’s loving nature. We hear how much God loves and how much He forgives. But hates?
It’s true…God hates.
Check out these verses…
- PROVERBS 6:16-19 (The Message) – Here are six things God hates, and one more that he loathes with a passion: eyes that are arrogant, a tongue that lies, hands that murder the innocent, a heart that hatches evil plots, feet that race down a wicked track, a mouth that lies under oath, a troublemaker in the family.
- DEUTERONOMY 12:30-31 (The Message) – Don’t get fascinated with their gods, thinking, “I wonder what it was like for them, worshiping their gods. I’d like to try that myself.” Don’t do this to God, your God. They commit every imaginable abomination with their gods. God hates it all with a passion. Why, they even set their children on fire as offerings to their gods!
- ISAIAH 61:8 (NIV) – For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity. In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them.
- JEREMIAH 44:4 (NIV) – Again and again I sent my servants the prophets, who said, “Do not do this detestable thing that I hate!” (talking about worshiping other gods)
- AMOS 5:21 (NIV) – I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies.
- MALACHI 2:16 (The Message) – “I hate divorce,” says the God of Israel. God-of-the-Angel-Armies says, “I hate the violent dismembering of the ‘one flesh’ of marriage.” So watch yourselves. Don’t let your guard down. Don’t cheat.
What’s your reaction to this? How does this sit in your stomach? What sticks out to you? What thoughts do you have about the “Things God Hates…”?
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Here’s one thing that jumped out to me…
The Bible never says that God hates people. The Bible says that God hates these specific things done by people, but never the people themselves.
“This is how much God LOVED the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.”
