Did you know that God hates certain things, not just dislikes them, not tolerates them because He feels He should love them, but actually hates them. “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” (Romans 9:13) There are a lot of people that just cannot come to grips with these types of Scriptures, and over the years more have been added to their ranks, thanks to the subtle deceits of our adversary.
“God is love” has been the chant for quite some time now, and it has gone so far as to become a serious detriment to the works of the Lord in some areas, the enabled society has grown out of it, pastors who fear to offend with the Word of God have come from it, weak-willed servants of Christ were and are being birthed from it. Perhaps one of the greatest faults lies in the statement that has been around since the beginning of this event, “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” You will find this nowhere in the Scriptures, and my friend, God does not separate the sinner from their sins, the person doing the sin is the sinner by choice, Go’s children are punished for continual sins, the wrath of God rests on the wicked, and there is no such thing as a loving wrath, the vengeance and anger of the Lord is not tempered with love.
It is an attribute of God that many will not exemplify in their walk with Him, they refuse to hate, and for some reason believe all that is necessary is love, a squishy, “feel good about everyone” type of love, and not the love of action. We are to forgive our brothers seventy times seven, (Matt. 18:22) we are to love our enemy, (Matt. 5:44) we are to love our neighbor, but we are not to condone actions against the Most High God and just try to love them out of their sinful ways. A most difficult subject for many to say the least.
“And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8) “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” (1 Cor. 13:13) Yet to follow these verses of truth and not all of the Scriptures, the life of Christ in its entirety, is to not know our Lord in His entirety. It can be likened to the believer who wants to follow, but does not want to be a partaker in the fellowship of His suffering, they want only the parts of Christ that help them to feel good, to feel better about themselves.
Can you see yourself speaking to the Pharisees of our day as your Lord did, can you stand in front of those who represent the religious organizations of our world that are leading untold numbers of souls to the pit of hell and call them vipers, (Matt. 23:33) can you refute them in hatred for what they are knowingly and willingly doing, while at the same time love those who are being led astray by them. Your Lord did, He was quite willing to point out not just the fact of their sins, but that they themselves were sinners, and He did it to their face.
If God hates, and Jesus Christ is God, then the Lord Jesus hates certain things, and if you desire to be Christlike, then you also are going to need to not only hate the same things He does, but you are going to need to voice that hatred. This is as simple as one plus one equals two, yet many Christians will expound on any and every possible excuse that they can find not to do so.
We see sin on nearly every corner, and walk right past it, we hear those behind the pulpits in many places preaching lies and falsehoods, and we turn our face away, and we call it love. It is called apathy, and it arose from fear of personal reprisals. Those who love not their lives to the end will not know this fear, but they may know a love that many of us can only dream of.
