On May 26, 2012, Lady Gaga twittered, "There is nothing Holy about Hatred."
Except God did hate. Jesus even hated. So either Lady Gaga is right and the Bible is wrong. Or maybe Lady Gaga is not a good source to get one's worldview from.
So what should we hate? Because if we are honest with ourselves, everyone hates things. Even those who claim they don't hate anything, hate. Those who want peace and love hate war. Those who preach tolerance hate intolerance.
And what should we be hated for? Because let's face it, people are going to hate us. We just need to make sure that we are hated for all the right reasons.
Each one of us will make mistakes. That's what grace is for. We are all hypocrites in some way. If that wasn't true, the cross would not be needed. There is no reason for any of us to think we are better than anyone else because we are all fallen sinners. Living in the realization that we are all faulty and failed individuals, God will still receive glory when we are repentant sinners striving to bring about His will.
At other times we see people who unleash venom attacking one person after another. Whoever that venom is directed toward, harboring and releasing that hatred is not good for them or the people around them. Whether you agree with Lady Gaga or the Bible, it doesn't fit in either worldview as holy.
This post is written to distinguish that sort of rabid, venomous hatred from the hatred expressed by God that should also be expressed by His people.
When we feel that we have been wronged, we will find hatred creeping up. This is not the hatred we should nurture and foster. At times like those, we will find ourselves at a crossroads where we can choose whether to follow God, including his difficult teaching to love our enemies, and live in his grace toward others, even those we disagree with, or whether we will cling to our culture of divisiveness and lash back with personal attacks on the person who we feel has wronged us.
We each have many choices to make as we continue the process of being transformed from our fallen self into the person God has destined us to be. God has so much in store for each of us. The question is whether we will surrender ourselves to His will and pursue His kingdom, or whether we will pursue our own will and our own kingdom no matter how noble our personal will appears to be.
There is a hatred that is never holy. But then there is righteous hate. Let us strive to hate the things God hates and live the lives that God has planned for us to bring Him glory. Despite what Lady Gaga states, that is a hatred that is holy.
Bible Verses Expressing God's Hatred
For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “and him who covers his garment with wrong,” says the Lord of hosts. “So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.” Malachi 2:16 (NAS)
I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them.
Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Amos 5:21-24 (ESV)
You shall not plant any tree as an Asherah beside the altar of the Lord your God that you shall make. And you shall not set up a pillar, which the Lord your God hates.
Deut 16:21-22 (ESV)
These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace; do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the Lord.”
Zech 8:16-17 (ESV)
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen all the disaster that I brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah. Behold, this day they are a desolation, and no one dwells in them, because of the evil that they committed, provoking me to anger, in that they went to make offerings and serve other gods that they knew not, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers. Yet I persistently sent to you all my servants the prophets, saying, ‘Oh, do not do this abomination that I hate!’
Jer 44:2-4 (ESV)
He [Jesus] looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart. Mark 3:5 (ESV).
I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them.
Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Amos 5:21-24 (ESV)
You shall not plant any tree as an Asherah beside the altar of the Lord your God that you shall make. And you shall not set up a pillar, which the Lord your God hates.
Deut 16:21-22 (ESV)
These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace; do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the Lord.”
Zech 8:16-17 (ESV)
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen all the disaster that I brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah. Behold, this day they are a desolation, and no one dwells in them, because of the evil that they committed, provoking me to anger, in that they went to make offerings and serve other gods that they knew not, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers. Yet I persistently sent to you all my servants the prophets, saying, ‘Oh, do not do this abomination that I hate!’
Jer 44:2-4 (ESV)
He [Jesus] looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart. Mark 3:5 (ESV).
Be Hated For Doing Good
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
(1 Peter 2:11-12)
For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.
(1 Peter 2:15-16)
For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
(1 Peter 3:17-18)
The World Will Hate Christians
Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.
(1 John 3:13 ESV)
If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
John 15:18-19 (ESV)
We Should Join In God's Hatred
The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
(Proverbs 8:13)
"I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
(Amos 5:21-24)
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.
(1 John 2:15-17)
