Does the Lord hate?

Does the Lord hate? Surely not, right? After all, "God is love" is one of our favorite verses. Plus, the idea of God hating anything or anyone would totally go against our picture of a kind grandpa in the sky... Well I was curious, so I did a quick study to see what the answer was...

Let me say briefly that I am not trying to be negative or say that God hates a bunch of people. This was just sparked by the trend to create a made up God based on our cultural values of tolerance, being "nice", never saying anything is wrong, etc. Certainly God is love, and He showed that He loves all of us by dying for us while we still were doing the things that He hates (Ro. 5.8) And you must ask the question of "Why?" while going over these things. Why does God hate them? Perhaps His hatred of these things is rooted in love?

Idolatry/False Gods (well known ones today - Allah, Greek/Roman Pantheon, Gaia (aka "Mother Nature"), Variety of religions that present Jesus as anything other than fully God AND fully man, ancestor worship, various spiritual philosophies) - Deut. 1.27; 7.25; 9.18; 12.31; I Ki. 11

Giving God your scraps and leftovers as offerings - Deut 17.1

Sorcery/Witchcraft/Divination/Tarot/Spiritual Mediums - Deut 18.9

Churches who just play church and go through the motions - Is. 1.14

Divorce - Malachi 2.16

Prostitution - Deut 23.18

Dishonest/Shady Business Practices - Deut 25.14; Prov. 11.1

Injustice in the Courts - Prov. 17.15

Sexual immorality/the practice of homosexuality - Rev. 2.14-15; Lev. 18 ("detests")

When people are arrogant
when people lie
hands that shed innocent blood
When people come up with wicked/perverse plans
When a person is quick to run to evil
liars
people who stir up trouble in church/community/families

Proverbs 6:16-19 (TNIV) There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable 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 out lies and a person who stirs up dissension in the community.


This is in no way exhaustive, but just a quick look at some of the things the Lord has strong feelings against.