Seven Evils God Hates

T
HESE SIX THINGS doth the Lord hate; yea, seven are an abomination to him” (Proverbs 6:16).

God does not discriminate between evils, but in Proverbs 6:16-19, He points out seven prevalent evils. Let’s consider these sins’ awful effects.

• A Proud Look. Pride caused Satan to fall from his estate as a prince among angels. His heart was lifted up because of his wisdom and beauty.

The Apostle Paul advised the church not to select a young convert to fill the office of a bishop, “lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil” (1 Timothy 3:6).
Paul listed pride as one of the last-day evils: “For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy” (2 Timothy 3:2).
When pride dominates our life, God withholds His grace from us (James 4:6).
• A Lying Tongue. Lying tongues led to Jesus’ death. After Jesus’ burial, the guards who watched Jesus’ grave were paid to say His disciples came by night and stole the body (Matthew 28:11-13).
What about believers lying? After Jesus was arrested, Peter lied, saying, “I do not know the Man!” (Matthew 26:74 NKJV).
Ananias lied to God and to the Holy Spirit. It was not keeping part of his money but lying about it that sent him to the grave (Acts 5:1-5).
• Shedding Innocent Blood. Abel was righteous, yet he was slain by his brother (Hebrews 11:4; Genesis 4:3-8). However, it is not necessary to kill a man in order to be guilty of murder. John said, “Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15).
Judas, when he saw Jesus was condemned by Pilate, returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and said, “I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood” (Matthew 27:4). Although Judas did not crucify Jesus, he betrayed innocent blood.
King David did not directly shed the blood of innocent Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, but Uriah’s blood was required at his hands (2 Samuel 12:9-10).
• Wicked Imaginations. An evil mind is a workshop for Satan, but a heart filled with love “thinks no evil” (1 Corinthians 13:5 NKJV).
In Noah’s day, “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5), bringing God’s wrath on the old world.
• Running to Mischief. Some people are not at ease unless they can stir up discord.
A good policy is to “abstain from all appearance of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:22), which includes mischief. Stay away from disgruntled people who cause trouble in the church.
• False Witness. A false witness is a person who disregards the truth to further his own cause. He is like the Pharisee who said, “I am not as other men” (Luke 18:11). I seriously doubt that man fasted twice a week and paid tithes of all he possessed, as he claimed.
• Sowing Discord. David said, “How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1), but apparently there is always someone who will sow tares among the good wheat. Such a person is referred to as an enemy, and he performs his work under the cloak of darkness (Matthew 13:25). He loves “darkness rather than light, because [his] deeds [are] evil” (John 3:19).
Although God hates evil, it is equally true that He loves good. Therefore, we must “not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21 NKJV).
Clyde C. Cox, Church of God minister and author, wrote this article for the January 21, 1963, issue of the Evangel.