How to Be a Better Hater

“You’re a hater!” is one of the worst insults today, isn’t it? To be a hater is to be outside civil society. If you’re a hater, you’re a nonperson. Politicians and the media tell us there’s too much hate in our culture and that hate is causing so many problems.

But the problem is not that we hate too much; it’s that we hate too little. That’s why, in Proverbs 6:16–19, Wisdom University offers a class on how to hate. Specifically, How can we become better haters of what God hates? That’s the first part of the class. The second part is how to love what God loves.

God Is a Perfect Hater (6:16–19)

“There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him” (6:16). This doesn’t mean God hates only seven things. Seven is the number of perfection in the Bible, and therefore Solomon is telling us about God’s perfect hatred. What does our perfect God perfectly hate?

• God hates a proud look (6:17): “Haughty eyes” are arrogant facial expressions. This is first on the list because pride is the root of all other sins.
• God hates a lying tongue (6:17): A digital age equivalent of this would be lying fingertips. God’s hate is intensely focused on tiny pieces of skin and tiny muscles in our mouths and our hands that do immense harm with words.
• God hates violent hands (6:17): “Hands that shed innocent blood” includes mistreatment of people, especially the weak.
• God hates scheming hearts (6:18): Someone who spends time hatching wicked plots, making up stories about people, and spreading them has “a heart that devises wicked plans.”
• God hates fast feet (6:18): This person “makes haste to run to evil.”
• God hates false witness (6:19): These people give false testimony in court or in other disputes.
• God hates divisive troublemakers (6:19): They sow discord in a family, community, or church.

Hatred of sin is a perfection of God. God doesn’t just have a mild aversion to sin. He abhors it. He is outraged by it. The Ten Commandments tell us about ten things God loathes. God hates sin because it damages us and separates us from him (Pss. 5:5; 11:5). God so hated sin that he sent his Son to die to remove it.

Our problem is not that we hate too much; it’s that we hate too little.

If that’s what God hates, then what does God love?

God Is a Perfect Lover

These verses tell us what God hates. But, just like the Ten Commandments, for every negative, there’s a positive. For everything forbidden, the opposite is required. For everything God hates, there’s a reverse that he loves.

• God loves a humble heart.
• God loves a truthful tongue.
• God loves kind hands.
• God loves creative hearts.
• God loves slow-motion feet when it comes to evil.
• God loves truthful witness.
• God loves peacemakers.

This is who God is in his entirety. If we fail this important class and hate what God loves or love what God hates, we become part of what God hates, and we miss out on experiencing God’s love.

We become better lovers when we become better haters.

Changing Our Story with God’s Story

Jesus is the perfect lover, but he is also the perfect hater. He is gentle Jesus, meek and mild. He is also jealous reformer, driving sin out of God’s house with a whip. Jesus loved righteousness and hated wickedness so much that he was blessed with happiness more than anyone else (Heb. 1:9).

Summary: How can we become better haters of what God hates? Pursue perfection by hating what God hates and loving what God loves.

Question: What will you hate better today?

Prayer: Perfect Lover, help us to honor you by hating what you hate and loving what you love.