Proverbs 6:16-19; Psalm 97:10; Psalm 139:21,22
These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
Ye that love the LORD, hate evil.
Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The Lord hates sin with a perfect hatred.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): He hates every sin; He can never be reconciled to it; He hates nothing but sin. But there are some sins which He does in a special manner hate; and all those here mentioned are such as are injurious to our neighbour. It is an evidence of the good-will God bears to mankind that those sins are in a special manner provoking to Him which are prejudicial to the comfort of human life and society.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): To represent the Most High as simply a loving Father to His creatures is not only extremely partial, but altogether an erroneous view of His relations to us. His love is indeed the originating impulse of all the blessings of the covenant. But God is also a moral Governor, a righteous King, whose character is reflected in the government which He exercises; and therefore does He manifest His holy hatred of sin and justly punishes it. Hence it is that when He seeks the return of sinners unto Himself it is by a system of mediation which vindicates His perfections and magnifies His law. Calvary supplied the most solemn and awe-inspiring display of God’s hatred of sin that time or eternity will ever furnish!
JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): The torments of the bottomless pit are not so dreadful a demonstration of God’s hatred of sin, as the agonies of the cross!
JOHN NELSON DARBY (1800-1882): Upon the cross, all that God was in His holy hatred of sin fell on Christ for our sakes; and hence it was not then a question of love and fellowship, but all else that God was—His holiness, truth, majesty, righteousness—all was against Him, because on the cross He was as the One made sin for us.
C. H. SPURGEON: When sin was laid on Christ, even though it was none of His, yet the Father forsook Him…Unless we believe that sin cost Christ His life, we shall never have that holy enmity towards sin which we ought to have, that blessed intolerance of sin which ought to take possession of every Christian’s heart and mind!
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Sin is to be hated, because of the evil nature of it, it being exceeding sinful; and because of its evil consequences, bringing death, ruin, and destruction with it to the souls of men, unless grace prevents; and disquietude, distress, and trouble to the saints themselves; and because it is hateful to God, being contrary to His nature, will, and law, and is hated by Christ; and therefore those that love Him should hate that, shun it, avoid it, depart from it, and abstain from all appearance of it; as all such will, that love Him in sincerity.
RICHARD SIBBES (1577-1635): It is evident that our conversion is sound when we loathe and hate sin from the heart: a man may know his hatred of evil to be true, first, if it be universal: he that hates sin truly, hates all sin. Secondly, true hatred is fixed; there is no appeasing it but by abolishing the thing hated. Thirdly, hatred is a more rooted affection than anger: anger may be appeased, but hatred remains and sets itself against the whole kind.
WILLIAM PERKINS (1558-1602): And all this must proceed from a good ground, even from a good heart hating sin perfectly, that is, all sin, as David, “I hate them with perfect hatred;” and not as some, who can hate some sin, but cleave to some other: as many can hate pride, but love covetousness or some other darling sin: but we must attain to the hatred of all, before we can come to the practice of this precept.
RICHARD SIBBES: If our hatred be true, we hate all evil, in ourselves first, and then in others; he that hates a toad, would hate it most in his own bosom. Many, like Judah, are severe in censuring others (Genesis 38:24), but partial to themselves. Fifthly, he that hates sin truly, hates the greatest sin in the greatest measure; he hates all evil in a just proportion. Sixthly, our hatred is right if we can endure admonition and reproof for sin, and not be enraged; therefore, those that swell against reproof do not appear to hate sin.
C. H. SPURGEON: The Spirit also, very graciously, sanctifies us, and it is a part of His work to discover sin in us and to excite a holy hatred of it. He burns in our soul like flames of fire consuming evil.
RICHARD SIBBES: God is a Spirit, and He looks to our very spirits; and what we are in our spirits, in our hearts and affections, that we are to Him. Therefore, what ill we shun, let us do it from the heart, by hating it first. A man may avoid an evil action from fear, or out of other respects, but that is not sincerity. Therefore look to thy heart, see that thou hate evil, and let it come from sincere looking to God. “Ye that love the Lord, hate evil,” saith David: not only avoid it, but hate it; and not only hate it, but hate it out of love to God.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): True Christians will maintain a holy hatred to all the ways of sin.
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): To hate evil is to walk in light.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Who is there that enters into the interests of God with such oneness of soul as to say, “I hate them that hate thee, with perfect hatred”?
AUGUSTINE (354-430): What is “with a perfect hatred?”
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Literally it is, “I hate them with a perfection of hatred.”
AUGUSTINE: How then will he fulfil in them both his own saying, “Have not I hated those that hated thee, Lord,” and the Lord’s command, “Love your enemies”?
C. H. SPURGEON: We are bound to love our own enemies, but not God’s enemies, since they are haters of all that is good and true, and the essentially good One Himself. We love them as our fellow-beings, but we hate them as haters of God…To hate a man for his own sake, or for any evil done to us, would be wrong; but to hate a man because he is the foe of all goodness and the enemy of all righteousness, is nothing more nor less than an obligation. The more we love God the more indignant shall we grow with those who refuse Him their affection. “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha,” 1 Corinthians 16:22.
JOHN GILL: Wicked men are haters of God; of His Word, both Law and Gospel; of His ordinances, ways, and worship; of His people, cause, and interest; and therefore good men hate them: not as men, as the creatures of God, and as their fellow creatures, whom they are taught by the Gospel to love, to do good unto, and pray for; but as haters of God, and because they are so; not their persons, but their works.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Hate we may, but then it must be not the man, but his evil qualities.
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN: Therefore let His saints learn the lesson and “hate evil.”
C. H. SPURGEON: We cannot love God without hating that which He hates.
