God Hates Every False Way!

The Bible Plainly Declares God Is Love.

I John 4:7-16 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”

1 John 4:17 ESV

By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.

Yet There Is A Kind of Love Which God abhors.

I John 2:17 “And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

God loves perfectly, and therefore His love is pure, unspoiled, undivided, incorruptible. But because God loves perfectly He also hates perfectly. One must accompany the other. What I mean by that is that if you love something, you hate whatever threatens the object of your love and the greater your love the greater your hatred.

The more your affection for what is right, the more your dissatisfaction for what is wrong!

Psalm 97:10 ESV

O you who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

This verse says hate evil, you who love The Lord.

Psalm 119:104

Psalm 119:104 ESV

Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

So! Pardon me if I hate error, because it is my love for the Truth that causes me to hate error.

Pardon me if I hate sin, but it is my love for righteousness that makes me hate sin.

It was God’s Love manifested in Jesus Christ that compelled Jesus to cleansed the temple, because He saw that it had been turned into a den of thieves.

Psalms says: I love Your law, but hate those who are double-minded. I Love Your law, but I hate those who vacillate, sometimes liking it and sometimes not so much.

Psalm 119:128

Psalm 119:128 ESV

Therefore I consider all your precepts to be right; I hate every false way.

Psalm 119:163

Psalm 119:163 ESV

I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law.

Whatever it is that you love most causes you to hate that which disdains or degrades it, and so, the absolute perfect Love of God demands an absolute hatred of those things that are contrary to that Love.

We, on the other hand, love imperfectly and therefore hate imperfectly.

Let me give you an example: Proverbs 6:16

Proverbs 6:16-19 “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.” (ESV)

There are six things that the Lord hates,

seven that are an abomination to him:

What Are They?

A proud look—Haughty Eyes

This is to say that those who look down from above with disdain on those who are beneath them in value. It indicates a swelling type of pride that puffs up and shrinks those “lesser thans” surrounding you.

Pride is first on the list because it will carry you into rebellion and cause you to defile yourself with every other sin against God’s law.

God stands in full battle array and will destroy pride!

A Lying Tongue

God hates a lying tongue. God is The God of Truth; therefore, God hates lies.

God hates hands that shed innocent blood.

He hates murderers, those with cruel disposition.

God hates a heart that devises a wicked plan.

God hates the devising, scheming, planning, fabrication that turns the heart into the workshop of wickedness.

God hates feet that run rapidly to evil, not of the one who stumbles into something ignorantly, but the one who plots and schemes and plans for evil deeds.

God hates a false witness. Why? Because it confounds the Truth. Their lies are destructive and an assault on justice.

God hates one who spreads strife among brothers. God hates troublemakers…people who are divisive unjustifiably.

These tides of wickedness start with pride and is a reflection of a person’s own rebellion against God. It proceeds through the worst of things, a lying tongue, murder, but before you know it they become more familiar, devising, wicked plans which rush into sin using your mouth to sow discord amongst the brethren.

There are plenty of other things God hates like divorce, hypocrisy, idolatry, and false religion, but the reason God hates these things is because they are opposite of the things God loves. He hates all the things that are against His Holy nature.

God hates those who love the world.

That brings us to our passage again—God hates the world and those who love the world. I John 2:15-17

1 John 2:15–17 ESV

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

A good example of one who loved the world might be Lot’s wife when she turned around against the command of God to gaze upon Sodom and Gomorra one last time, and was turned into salt.

If anyone loves the world, the Love of The Father is not in them!

Look: God hates the world, and He hates those who love the world! God sets Himself against those who love the world.

Now, if you recall, John is giving us a series of tests by which Christians can know if they are truly saved or not.

Ok, not salvation by works…only Jesus’ works are acceptable.

John’s objective is not to cause doubt, but to make true Christians trust.

I John 5:13

1 John 5:13 ESV

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

So you can know that you have eternal life…not so you can doubt.

Take spiritual inventory and see if you match with the standard: both in doctrinal and moral test, then you can know and trust that you have eternal life.

It is also to reveal those who are not in the kingdom, no matter what they claim, because this is what was threatening the people to whom John was writing. They were being infiltrated by those who claimed to be Christians, yet denied the Christ, had no understanding of obedience, had no love for Christ, and no love for the brethren.

But the infiltrators did exhibit a love for the world.

Somebody who loves the world is not a believer. They do not possess the love of God.

John issues the command to “Do not love the world, neither the things that are in the world.” So we can say anyone who habitually loves the world is not a follower of Christ.

Look at 1 John 4:5; “they” is referring to those outside the kingdom...”they are from the world; therefore, they as from the world and the world listens to and shows favor to them.”

1 John 4:5

1 John 4:5 ESV

They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.

The worlds recognizes it’s own language, it’s own conversation, it identifies with them.

Verse 6: We are from God. He who knows God listens to us.

You are either of the world or of God. The Christian has been translated into Christ’s Kingdom.

1 John 5:4

1 John 5:4 ESV

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

Galatians 6:14

Galatians 6:14 ESV

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Is that an absolute statement or what?

The world is dead to me. Wow! All of my senses, and my mind and body are Christ!

This is very strong language, and very explicit, and also very black and white.

Ephesians 2:1-10

Ephesians 2:1–10 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Wow, we used to be like that, but Christ made a work in us and now He works through His people and they are to be Christ’s body in the world.

Now that is both scary and wonderful at the same time.

James 4:4

James 4:4 ESV

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

We are of the world or we are of God! We can NOT be of both! Trying to marry the world to the church has done more damage to the church than anything else.

You are a friend of the world or a friend of God! You are not both.

We are known as true Christians because we have a right view of Christ, because we have a right view of our own sinfulness and a desperate need for forgiveness.

We are Christians because we have a pattern of obedience in our lives and a love for others that reflects the Love of God in our hearts.

We also are believers because we have no love for the world. This is kind of the final exam on the love test.

Just as it was in John’s day, it is so in our day. There are people who claim to be true believers and members of Christ’s body might seem to be super human creatures who can relate and enjoy both piety with God and respect and fellowship with the world.

If that describes you; the Love of God is not in you.

What world?

You might ask what is this world we are talking about? Well that’s going to take another hour and a half but, I’m glad you asked!

Well, it’s not the physical world and is obviously not the human world. It is more invisible than that.

But as true Christians we can not love the world because of what is is.

The Greek word is “Kosmos”, which means ordered system…the opposite of “chaos”.

The word “Kosmos” is used five times in these few verses and is clearly the main theme.

The Glory of God is on display in God’s creation. Even the fallen creation in which we live.

The world we are to hate is the invisible spiritual system of evil. That order run by Satan, the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that works in the children of disobedience.

Remember “Kosmos” is the ordered system!

It is that evil system with all of its elements and components that work against the system of God. It is this world that Jesus spoke of when He said, “the world hates you as it hated me.”

It’s not people on their own who just hated Jesus.

The world that hated Jesus was the world of wickedness, wretchedness, the world of corruption, the system of evil devised by Satan ment to rid the earth of any existing image of God. It is the world, the order or system, the structure, this definition of world is Satan’s system made up of ideas, activities, and purposes that oppose Christ’s “Kosmos”Christ’s orderly system.

That is an order or world that is antichrist. It is everything that does not come down from the Father of Lights. If there is anything good in Christ think on these things.

It is this wicked world that is passing away.

Do NOT believe every spirit.

There is a pervasive spirit in this world that is anti-christ…based in lawlessness .

Satan has power as the “prince of this world” to enslave all of the children of disobedience and involve them in this anti-christ system.

Luke 16:8

Luke 16:8 ESV

The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.

Jesus says of the unregenerate people that they are “children of the world” offspring of the world.

This is not us...”we are not of this world we are citizens of another world.”

This does not mean that Christians are immune from the temptations of the world of the anti-christ…material things, lustful things, pride and self interest.

That is why the command is given. We can be enticed and seduced, and so we are told to flee from wickedness…don’t just turn your head, tolerance will have it’s work, you must run for your life or you will be drawn back into anti-christ-likeness.

Never forget we are to be Christ’s Body in this present age, not in the sweet by and by.