Hating what God Hates . . . Proverbs 8:13

"The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverted mouth, I hate. Proverbs 8:13

Hate . . . most people believe that Christians should not hate at all.  They believe that hate is a bad thing.  Yet here in Proverbs, the book of wisdom from God, we have a command to hate!  Let's take a look and see how God calls us to be a hater . . . of sin and evil.

"The fear of the LORD is to hate evil . . . here is where it all starts.  It starts with a respect and honor for God Himself.  We will never be wise until we understand that God is great - greater than all others and penultimate!  That respect, honor, and yes fear will move us toward wisdom - because what is penultimate in our lives is what will eventually govern us.  That honor and respect also means that we will hate evil. 

Hate . . . This Hebrew word means to hate, to despise, to dislike something or someone and thus to be hostile toward it and loathe it.  The statement, God doesn't hate anyone is not theologically sound.  According to Psalm 11:5, God hates those who love violence.  We learn in Hosea 9:15 and Amos 6:8 that God detests and hates those who turn to evil and choose it instead of Him.  Psalm 5:5 makes is clear that God hates all those who love evil.  Rather than try to do an exhaustive study on this - let's realize at this point that God hates certain things - and yes - He hates certain people.  Here is the fact of this passage - if we honor and respect God - we will hate evil.  We will loathe and despise it with everything within us.  The proverb goes on to say, we hate several things specifically. 

Pride . . . we hate pride.  Pride has an interesting root word that instructs us greatly.  The root word means to rise up, to lift up, and thus to exalt.  There is only One Who sould be lifted up and raised up and exalted.  God is that One and His interests and desires should always reign supreme in our lives.  Problem is that they don't - and we lift ourselves up and exalt ourselves as the authority in our lives.  We decide we know best - and we are adequate for life and for everything.  This is the root of pride - when we choose to exalt self above God.  This we should HATE! 

Arrogance . . . this is pride in action.  Pride indicates the attitude that a person has that is independent of God - the one who thinks they can live apart from Him.  Arrogance is when a person acts upon that pride and lives in a way that no longer exalts and honors God.  We act arrogantly when we lift up our own thinking and reasoning above that of God.  That kind of action we should HATE!

The Evil Way . . . the word way is the often used word "derek" and it again refers to a lifestyle - a way a person walks and lives their lives.  Note here we've moved from the attitude of pride - to the acting out of that pride in arrogance - and now we see the fruition of many acts of arrogance in an evil lifestyle and way of living.  When we choose not to honor or lift up God, but rather lift up ourselves over and over again - we develop an entire lifestyle.  God hates a lifestyle that ignores and dishonors Him - and we should HATE it too.

The Perverted Mouth . . . This is a mouth that deviates and distorts the Lord's ways and turns from Him.  It is corrupt and deceptive speech - a distortion of what is straight and right.  When a prideful lifestyle and arrogant actions prevail in our lives - we will then justify them by speaking what is perverted.  We will justify our lives - and as we do - we will distort God's ways - and deviate from them in what we say.  Romans 1 says that the wicked not only live the way they do - knowing it is not God's way - but they also heartily encourage others to do the same thing. 

God does hate certain things - and He lists them here for us to learn and to avoid.  The wise man learns these things - and realizes that one of the most foolish things in life to do is to anger and enrage the living God and embrace what He hates.