True Love Hates

On the face of it this statement – true love hates – does not make sense.

There’s an image of love that is full of pleasant, life-affirming sentiments and digging a bit deeper there are even more commendable qualities such as hope and perseverance that help fill out our concept of what love involves. In all that mix there’s not a hint of hatred there at all.

Yet it remains a fact that true love hates.

The opposite of love is not hate.  True love burns fiercely for what it represents and towards its object, and thus it burns fiercely against anything that opposes what it represents and its object.  That fierce burning against is hatred.

In case we get concerned at such a thought, check what the writer of Proverbs says about the God who is love … and the things He hates:

• Haughty eyes,
• A lying tongue,
• Hands that shed innocent blood,
• A heart that devises wicked schemes,
• Feet that are quick to rush into evil,
• A false witness who pours out lies
• A person who stirs up conflict in the community

If you asked someone based on modern expressions of Christianity what God hates, more likely than not you might get answers like homosexuals, liberals, Muslims and atheists.

You’ll notice in the list there’s no mention of any of these people at all. What we do see are a list of characteristics that oppose what true love stands for. Qualities that separate, isolate, inflate and desecrate.  Qualities that prefer lies to truth and rejoice in mischief and that which makes for war and not peace.

The writer of the Proverbs does not state that God is mildly inconvenienced by these, or that He would prefer it if we didn’t behave in these ways. It is written that God – the One who is true love – hates these qualities. When you see the word abomination used and it refers to God, then you must know things are serious.

That’s not to say we make it an obsession to look for people who display these characteristics. In fact, if we were honest, there may be one or two (or three or four) of those qualities that at one time or another we may have exhibited ourselves.

Finding this out about ourselves should make us all the more aware of God’s mercies in not wiping us out when we behave in these ways.  As we become aware of His mercies we can also embrace Him and the very values with which His love shines.

Jesus proclaims these in His Sermon on the Mount, particularly the Beatitudes. Compare and contrast:

• Haughty eyes vs. Poor in Spirit
• Lying tongue vs. Those who Mourn
• Hands that shed innocent blood vs. The Meek
• Heart devising wicked schemes vs. Those who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness
• Feet quick to do evil vs. The Merciful
• A false witness vs. The Pure in Heart
• Person who stirs up conflict in the community vs. The Peacemakers

The ministry of Jesus was about The Way that showed people the things God loves so we might run away from the things God hates and towards what He stands for.  As we love those qualities out in every aspect of our love, so we will develop more a passion to hate the things God hates and love the things God loves.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden