#DailyDevotion God Hates Sinners. God Loves You.
Psalm 5 4You are not a God Who likes wickedness. Evil can’t live with You. 5Those who brag can’t stand before Your eyes. You hate all who do wrong 6and destroy those who tell lies. The LORD detests anyone who murders and cheats.
These verses cause a lot of consternation with those who narrowly focus on the love of God. We all know God is love. I don’t think we all know what that means or rather what it takes for God to love us. Maybe more so, we either don’t know the magnitude of our sins or we do know and we can’t stand what God here says about our standing before Him in our sins. A lot of people, including those who call themselves Christians cannot reconcile these words with John 3:16. But it is possible for those who hold all of Scriptures before their eyes and say, Amen.
So unfortunately for those who wish to continue doing what they want to do and live in a manner contrary to the Word of God, these words stand true and call them all to repentance. God does not like wickedness, any kind of wickedness. Love is love will not stand before God when that is a cover to do what is evil in his sight. David tells us very clearly, evil cannot live with the LORD, the God of Israel. Just to be clear, since we are New Testament people, Paul, the apostle of grace teaches us in Galatians 5, “19Now, you know the works of the flesh. They are: sexual sin, uncleanness, wild living, 20worshiping of idols, witchcraft, hate, wrangling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, quarreling, divisions, 21envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, those who do such things will have no share in God’s kingdom.” The list is not exhaustive.
God also hates those who brag, all who do wrong and will destroy those who tell lies. Humility is something great with God (just make sure you don’t boasts of your humility). When standing before God whatever you think you are so great at won’t stand up to muster. You will be found lacking and humiliated. If you are humble though, God will lift you up. To brag is to deny any good you have is from God (which it is). We have this word hate. Some will try to soften this world with defining it as not chosen i.e. “Jacob I loved but Esau I hated.” The context here really doesn’t lend itself to that meaning. Here, “not chosen” ends you up in the flames of hell. The meaning is certainly greater than not being preferred. God hates sinners. We are all in trouble(.) The parallel is “destroy those who tell lies.” Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Those who tell lies run in opposition to this. To lie is to act like the father of lies and is to be his children. Parallel to that is also, “The LORD detests anyone who murders and cheats.” With God these are broad categories. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount equates calling people bad names with murder, for it does kill the character of the person before everyone’s eyes and in that person’s heart. Cheating is any form of stealing and lying. Sounds like we are all in trouble to me.
Thankfully, we have this word from Paul in Romans 5, “6A…while we were still helpless, Christ died for the ungodly.…But God shows how He loves us by this, that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. ..10If while we were His enemies we were made God’s friends by the death of His Son, now that we are His friends we are all the more certain He will save us by His life.” Jesus says in Luke 5:32, “I didn’t come to call righteous people, but sinners to repent.” John write in his first epistle ch. 5, “10This is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the payment for our sins.” God does not want to hate the wicked or destroy them. His holiness cannot stand them. So He sent Jesus to cover our sinfulness with his blood and make us holy so God can show his love to us.
Heavenly Father, wickedness and evil can’t stand before you. Give us faith in Jesus that is blood may cover our sins so we can experience your love. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.