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Yesterday at the opening of Hate week, we looked at what God hates. If God declares in His word that He hates something, it's incumbent upon us to know what it is and to hate it too. We are made in His image, so we should love what He loves and Hate what He hates. We must obey Him and glorify Him. If we do the things He hates, we don't obey Him, love Him, or glorify Him. Therefore, we look into these things, as unpalatable as they are.
It couldn't be clearer in Proverbs 8:13.
The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
Matthew Henry explains from his Whole Commentary on the Bible, opens with saying that hating what God hates gives men good hearts. Then,
*The froward mouth speaks false doctrines, and bad counsels and deceits.
*The froward mouth is the mouth that speaks perverse things
As the Geneva Study Bible says succinctly, "So that he who does not hate evil, does not fear God."
Kind of puts it into perspective, doesn't it?
Hate evil. This is wisdom.
It couldn't be clearer in Proverbs 8:13.
The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
Matthew Henry explains from his Whole Commentary on the Bible, opens with saying that hating what God hates gives men good hearts. Then,
v. 13. True religion, consisting in the fear of the Lord, which is the wisdom before recommended, teaches men,
1. To hate all sin, as displeasing to God and destructive to the soul: The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, the evil way, to hate sin as sin, and therefore to hate every false way. Wherever there is an awe of God there is a dread of sin, as an evil, as only evil.
2. Particularly to hate pride and passion, those two common and dangerous sins. Conceitedness of ourselves, pride and arrogancy, are sins which Christ hates, and so do all those who have the Spirit of Christ; every one hates them in others, but we must hate them in ourselves,
The froward mouth*, peevishness towards others, God hates, because it is such an enemy to the peace of mankind, and therefore we should hate it. Be it spoken to the honour of religion that, however it is unjustly accused, it is so far from making men conceited and sour that there is nothing more directly contrary to it than pride and passion, nor which it teaches us more to detest.
*The froward mouth speaks false doctrines, and bad counsels and deceits.
*The froward mouth is the mouth that speaks perverse things
As the Geneva Study Bible says succinctly, "So that he who does not hate evil, does not fear God."
Kind of puts it into perspective, doesn't it?
Hate evil. This is wisdom.
Elizabeth, thank you for doing this series. Recently those "hate has no home here" posters were all the rage and some of my neighbors had them. It bothered me a lot because of its message (worldly tolerance of everything except Christians). But mainly it bothered me because hate can be a very good thing- there are many things we should hate! That poster teaches people that "hate" in and of itself is somehow evil, but this is not true. I hope your posts will go a long way toward correcting that idea.
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous,
DeleteThank you so much for reading and for your comment. I agree with you.
I learned myself in researching this, that amazingly, hate can have a 'good' to it. When I read Matthew Henry's interpretation of the Proverb, he said "hating what God hates gives men good hearts". It hit me.
Of course in our sinful hearts and the world's economy even good hate (like hating sin) can be turned to pride, self-righteousness, and other sinful thoughts and actions. But the notion of hate in the Bible, yesterday describing what God hates and today, learning that we should hate what God hates, is important. And biblical. :) Since it's there, we should explore it. Thanks for coming on the journey with me.