“To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. Counsel and sound judgment are mine; I have insight, I have power.”   Proverbs 8: 13-14

These are strong, and unsurprising words from the Lord. If we know Him and His Word, we will know these words to be true. If we don’t know Him, we might be surprised to hear that God has hatred towards some things because we have heard that God is love.

God’s love is not like our love. He loves because He in Himself is love. God loves righteousness, and the flip side of that, is that He hates unrighteousness.

To love God is to love what He loves and hate what He hates. To be a believer is to fear the Lord and hate evil. Our problem is we don’t hate evil, the evil that rises in our own hearts, and separates us from God. We are proud and arrogant and think we know best. We don’t want to humble ourselves before His throne and admit our guilt. We tolerate our sin and easily slip into the hatefulness in our hearts that leads us into perversity in our thinking and speaking and doing.

We think our wisdom is correct. We contend with the almighty God and imagine we have the right to argue with Him. All the councils of wisdom and justice belong to the everlasting God. To think we can challenge Him is rampant presumption.

The ruling of God over what is sin, or not sin, is absolute. There are no deals to be done or concessions to be made. We definitely don’t like this idea. We are used to being asked our point of view and the opportunity to express our opinion. God has laid down His holy law, and it is unchangeable. He will never tolerate evil in any form. The greatest evil being disobedience against His law, and unbelief in His person. God’s hatred of sin, is the expression of His absolute power. Holiness is power. Unbelief is our chief sin and will keep us away from God and forgiveness, and will keep us always choosing the wrong path.

Only God has the power to change this situation. He can open our eyes to see our true position before Him, and to see our great need. We need to recognise love as He is love and admit that we are unworthy servants in need of His love. Only as we recognise these things, will we bow our proud knee and confess our sin. He is ready to forgive us and lift us up in His kingdom, to turn our lives around and change our hearts and minds. This is the grand design for the coming kingdom and those who acquiesce to His mighty love, will find that love and live in it’s power. Then we will hate what is evil and love what is good. Then we will become more like God, as we walk the pathways of this fallen world. We will love what is good and we will love God.