Can God Hate?

These six things the LORD hates,

yes, seven are an abomination to Him:

a proud look,

a lying tongue,

hands that shed innocent blood,

a heart that devises wicked plans,

feet that are swift in running to evil,

a false witness who speaks lies,

and one who sows discord among brethren.

Proverbs 6:16-19

My dad must have preached at least a thousand sermons in my hearing through the years, but there are few that I can truly remember. It would probably put a strain on my memory to recall even a handful of the messages he delivered, but this one I remember well. It may have been my favorite of his sermons of all time, probably because he preached it multiple times when the need arose. And the other thing I remember is that it never failed to make somebody mad...usually the sower of discord among brethren.

It wasn't necessarily his preaching against sin that made people mad; everyone agrees that sin is bad, in principle. Pride is bad. Lying is bad. Murder is bad. Scheming and evil are bad. Stirring up trouble is bad. No, those things we could almost always agree on. What always got peoples' dander up was the word associated with God in this verse--the word hate. It's there, in black print on the page of my Bible--the same Bible that says God is love and God so loved the world that. But here it says God hates something. Actually, it says God hates someone.

A look. The tongue, hands, heart and feet. Those are things that belong to a person. But the false witness and the sower of discord--those are actually people. And God hates them.

It was hard for people to reconcile their faith in a loving God with a Scripture that says God hated them if they lied about somebody or stirred up trouble among somebodies. And yet it does say that. Hate is a stronger word than dislikes. It doesn't merely indicate God's displeasure. It invokes God's wrath and necessitates His action. And it's not just about sin...this doesn't say God hates sin. It says God hates the one who is committing it.

So what do we do with that? I'd suggest humility, honesty, kindness, purity, righteousness, honesty again, and love. I think those are things God can love about us, and then we won't have to worry about that thing that makes us uncomfortable about God.