Divine Disgust – Seven Things that God Hates

Divine Disgust – Seven Things that God Hates.

“Enough! How long will you defend the evil-doers? How long will show kindness to those who do wicked things? You’re here to defend the defenseless, to give justice to the weak and fatherless, to maintain the rights of the oppressed and needy. Your job is to rescue the powerless and stand up for them, to deliver them from all who exploit them!” (Psalm 82:2-4).

As we continue to grow in our relationship with God, we discover that we yearn to progress in loving what God loves and hating what God hates.  If we are not growing in those two areas of God’s character, it’s doubtful we even have a relationship with God to begin with. Following the example of Jesus in the gospels, loving the sinner while hating the sin itself is crucial to our growing in the character of the Lord. If God finds certain behavior morally disgusting, but we find it acceptable, then we are not where we should be. It might be surprising to realize that God can have hate in His heart. We know that God is full of love, that He is in fact Love. But hate? That is a difficult concept to digest. But think about it more, and it starts to make sense. Like the Father He is, God loves us so much that He hates whatever might be destructive to us, whatever might come to harm us or our relationship to Him. God’s hatred for evil comes out of His eternal protective instinct. Another thing to think about… God is purely righteous, virtuous, filled with goodness through and through. Out of His goodness, He established a moral universe. Since the profoundly tragic fall of mankind, the overall moral universe remains, but immorality has to be dealt with and judged. Because of the way God created the world, there are rights and wrongs, the moral and immoral, the righteous and the unrighteous. God hates the wrongs. It’s no wonder the early Christians called them the ”deadly sins.” God wants to give us life, the evil one wants to give us death. God hates whatever might be deadly to us. God hates whatever in the world was not a part of His righteous plan for the world. Simply put, God’s hate comes out of His righteous love for us and His world. Yes, God hates. But He hates whatever is worth hating. God speaks plainly in His Word about what He loves and what He hates, about what God embraces and what He rejects. The category entitled “Divine Disgust” is intended to be a biblical catalogue of what God hates, what God finds abominable. Naturally, as we are becoming aware of what God hates, we will also learn what God loves. The truth is, if we are being transformed into the likeness of Jesus and thus the character of God, we show our fearful love of God by joining Him in hating what is evil. (Proverbs 8:13).

ABOMINATION: (Hebrew, “towebah”) = An activity that God considers morally disgusting; a detestable behavior; any action or attitude that is loathed with a passion by God; behavior that God has judged as spiritually abhorrent and unacceptable; something that God hates and finds deeply repugnant; something that is deeply offensive to God’s sensibilities; any action or attitude that God thinks is repulsive, revolting and utterly alien to God’s nature.

God isn’t shy about lining up some of the things in human life that He finds deplorable. It’s interesting to note in this passage, Proverbs 6:16-19, that this is an example of the “plus one” formula in Scripture, a literary device to draw attention to the additional one at the end of list. This is a way of saying that the additional one at the end, the “plus one,” is the most important one on the list! Fascinating, how important it is in God’s eyes to maintain love in our community.

“These six things the Lord hates; Yes, seven are an abomination to Him;

… A proud look: literally looking down on someone else with haughty eyes; an air of superiority and arrogance in one’s appearance and attitude; a prideful way of viewing others. This deadly sin is often highlighted in the Bible as the beginning of the end, a first step in rejecting God Himself. Pride is especially underlined in Proverbs 16:5 as an abomination… “Every arrogant heart is abhorrent to Lord Yahweh; every haughty person is an abomination to God.”

… A lying tongue: speaking dishonestly to others and to the Lord; being deceptive and deceitful; purposely omitting the truth through a dishonest silence, a mistruth, a half-truth, a “little white lie;” allowing someone to walk away from your conversation with the wrong impression or a deception. We worship the God of truth, we follow Jesus who is the Truth, and we recognize the fact that when we lie, we are joining forces with Satan, the “Father of Lies.” There is a mysterious power in the tongue, and we will be judged one day by our words.

… Hands that shed innocent blood: assaulting or murdering an innocent person or one who can’t defend himself; a lover of violence as if that is how all the problems in the world are solved; a bloodthirsty person who loves the taste of harmful conquest; someone who is murderous in his heart and harbors anger and resentment (Matt. 5:21-24); anyone who deliberately and continually hates another person (1 John 3:15); any attitude or action involving fatal injury or murder reflects the moral view of the Evil One, “who was a murderer from the start.” (John 8:44).

… A heart that devises wicked schemes: a lover of evil mischief; one who is adept at hatching evil plots; one who carefully devises schemes to gain an unfair advantage or hurt others; one who enjoys being up to no good; one who enjoys using his intelligence to do dishonorable things; one who believes he can outsmart goodness. Once again, this is a person who mimics the strategies of the devil, who is the ultimate schemer.

… Feet that are quick to run to evil: one who thinks running down the wrong track is life-giving; one who has a habit of pursuing wickedness; one who seeks out trouble and then scampers quickly into the middle of it; one who loves to race in the wrong direction; a sprinter who thinks the winner’s circle is for losers; one whose purpose in life seems to win the race to the bottom.

… A false witness who utters lies: one whose promises are untrustworthy; a bold-faced deceiver under oath; one who kindles injustice and unfairness; one who testifies to be honest but is actually breathing out lies and deceptions; one who commits perjury whenever the truth is expected; one who makes a legal confession become a mockery of the truth.

… Who spreads strife in the family of believers: one who loves to create dissension and disunity in a community or group of people; enjoys sowing discord through slander, gossip, rumor, the verbal spreading of mischief; loves to cause quarrels and unnecessary differences of opinion. Instead of being a peacemaker, this is a troublemaker in the home who inspires strife and broken relationships.

If one ever wonders what God objects to in no uncertain terms, what He finds deplorable, this passage in Proverbs 6 is a good place to start looking into the window of God’s character. Living into the One Anothers is the biblical antidote to these abominations:

1. Bear One Another’s Burdens: To lift up and carry; to take up and walk with; to intercede for someone else, whether through prayer or caregiving, whether tangible or intangible; to relieve someone of something that weighs heavily on them.
2. Build Up One Another: To edify; to strengthen; to empower; to affirm certain qualities; to help someone or a group to grow to maturity; to construct a building, an edifice, of faith and character in another person or group.
3. Warn One Another: To admonish; to caution; to place into someone’s awareness; to reprove gently; to call attention to; to alert another person’s thinking; to offer sound advice and guidance.
4. Encourage One Another: To “paraclete” each other: Called to come alongside someone in need, in order to help and bear burdens by Pointing to God, Advising,Reminding, Advocating for, Comforting, Listening, Exhorting, Teaching and E
5. Restore One Another: To set right; to repair; to refit; to mend; to rejoin; to bring back to its original state; to heal.
6. Honor One Another: To show deference to; to prefer over one’s self; to highly esteem; to greatly respect; to revere; to focus on the importance of another.
7. Bear With One Another: To put up with; to make allowances for; to willingly endure; forbearance; to tolerate; to have patience with; to accept someone despite their weaknesses.
8. Exhort One Another: To urge to continue in the Faith; to beseech in strong terms; to come alongside to offer encouraging guidance; to inspire courage and hope; to call upon someone to act; to give affirming words that strengthens others.
9. Confess to One Another: To acknowledge openly; to freely admit to wrongdoing; to announce one’s guilt; to concede one’s shortcomings; to repent of sins; to agree with God that one’s sin is a sin.
10. Wash One Another’s Feet: A simple act of hospitality; a house servant’s task; involves placing someone else’s dirty, smelly feet into a bowl of water and carefully using one’s hands to cleanse those feet of all dirt, grime and sweat, and then drying the feet with a clean towel; a common, menial act of service and humility; exercising the ministry of touch to the untouchable; the powerful sacrament of servanthood.
11. Harmonize with One Another. When separate parts intentionally combine into a beautiful whole; to reconcile apparent differences into a combined unity; to adjust in order to fit together; to be of the same mind; to unite in the same direction in will, affection and conscience; to join together in unity of spirit and purpose, with one heart and one passion; to be agreeable and get along; mutual understanding.