SEVEN THINGS THE LORD HATES
By: Dr. Mike Jones
(Proverbs 6:16-19) There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to Him: 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 our lies and a man who sirs up dissension among brothers.
As many sinful acts that there are, Solomon (the writer of Proverbs) could have given us many other sins the Lord hates, but these seven give us enough of a complete picture of how God views evil.
Two basic words are used in this text to described how God feels about evil. Both words are close in meaning. The words are “HATE” and “ABOMINATION.” HATE carries the idea of intensely disliking something and ABOMINATION means detestable. One Christian writer gave a wonderful example of the two words. He said, “We hate adultery and we detest child abuse.”
As we go through this list of things the Lord hates, keep in mind it’s not the person God hates, but the wickedness that they do – keep in mind that God is portrayed as a God of love so many times in the Bible that some people don’t see that there are some things He hates. And yet to others, it’s hard to think of our loving God hating something, but yet we must realize that God cannot permit sin to reign in our lives as His children and feel we’re able to approach His presence.
In verse 16, the first thing the Lord hates is haughty eyes (or a pious look). This person’s heart is corrupt with pride. This person feels superior to others. If a proud heart isn’t dealt with, the person will become extremely prejudice in areas of life dealing with racial, financial, and social issues. Proverbs 16:10 states that “pride goeth before destruction, and and haughty spirit before a fall.” The New Testament informs us to be of the same mind one toward another. To mind not high things, but candescent to men of low estate. (This means, don’t always try to be popular with people that have substance, but spend quality time with ordinary folks). Jesus, through the New Testament writers give us examples of people with a proud/arrogant spirit. Let’s look at Luke 18:9-14 (Publicans and Pharisees); James 2:-2 (Judging someone with evil thoughts). God wants us to have HUMILITY: See Philippians 2:5-8. Jesus humbled Himself in 1 Peter 5:5-6 (we humble ourselves).
The second thing the Lord hates is a “lying tongue.” It is said that speaking the truth is one of the most precious compliments one person can pay another. The total sum of a person is the words spoken out of their mouth in honesty. It’s hard to regain confidence in a person when you find out they lied about you or to you.
Jeremiah (9:5) speaks of a person or people whose motive is to deceive everyone he comes in contact with because he will NOT speak the truth. He has trained his tongue to speak lies.
In Acts 26:25 (Paul’s defense before King Agrippa and Governor Festus), he said, “I am not mad, most noble Festus; but speak forth the words of truth and soberness.” Another place he said, “I’m an ordained preacher and an apostle, I speak the truth in Christ, I don’t lie.” Psalms 15 declares the ONLY person who can dwell in God’s Holy Place is a person that walks upright before God, works righteousness, and always speaks the truth from their heart.
In our society, there is a growing number of people that don’t want to hear the truth about what God’s Word says about various situations, the Bible says they like to deceive people and yet Satan is deceiving them. God will send them (at appointed time) strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they might ALL be damned who believe not the truth, and had pleasure in unrighteousness (2 Thess. 2:10-12).
In New Testament, the Bible calls you blessed if you’re persecuted for righteous sake (1 Peters Epistle 3:14) and back in Psalms 15, it is stated, “he that swears to his own heart and changeth not. (Simply put, a person that has an opportunity to tell a lie and possibly get out of the situation, but refuses and tells the truth, even if it means jail time.) God is so bent on us telling the truth that He have us an example in the Old Testament of His not accepting a half truth in Genesis 20 when Abraham lied about Sarah being his sister, and Abraham is called the Father of the Faithful.
The third thing the Lord hates is “hands that shed innocent blood.” Man declares he’s good, but God declares that an unregenerated man is wicked in his imagination and often in his deeds because he is controlled by his flesh. We know this to be true by looking back at 9-11, the recent sniper shootings here in the Washington, DC area, and more recent the sniper shootings on the highways in the State of Ohio.
Let’s look at a few statistics on violent crimes here in the United States. (These statistics come from the files of the FBI and Justice Department):
- There were 1.2 million violent crimes – law enforcement 2011.
- Per/100,000 people: 15,000 were murdered.
- 83,000 were forcible rapes.
- 355,000 were robberies: There were 751,000 aggravated assault.
- There were 9.1 million property crimes & 2.2 million burglaries & 6.2 million larceny/theft, along with 715,000 motor vehicle theft cases… (TO BE CONTINUED)
(Adapted from Seven Things the Lord Hates; all Scripture references are taken from the KJV unless otherwise noted.)