When Love Hates

John 3:16, For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

1st John 4:7-8, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

God so loved… God is love….  Is God more than love?

BIG IDEA: God’s expressions of both love and hate are perfect and right… A better understanding of that truth reveals the purpose behind them.

Proverbs 6:16-19, There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

1.  Haughty eyes

2nd Corinthians 12:7, So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

James 4:10, Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

2.  Lying tongue

John 8:44, You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Matthew 5:37, Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

3.  Hands that shed innocent blood

1st John 3:15, Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

Psalm 82:3-4, Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

4.  Heart that devises wicked plans

Psalm 36:3-4, The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit; he has ceased to act wisely and do good. He plots trouble while on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not reject evil.

Micah 6:8, He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

5.  Feet that make haste to run to evil

John 3:19, And this is the judgment: the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light because their works were evil.

James 4:7, Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

6.  False witness that breathes out lies

Exodus 23:1, You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness.

Isaiah 1:16-17, Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before My eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.

7.  One who sows discord among brothers

Titus 3:10-11, As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.

Matthew 5:9, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

NEXT STEP: I will learn to hate everything that God hates… Starting not in others but within me.