Proverbs 8:13 To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.
Most parents teach children to refrain from saying the word hate. It is easy to get into the bad habit and soon you are saying I hate this and I hate that. Once I was told that hate is a strong word. This young man was expecting to marry soon, and as I was counseling him, he rightly set me in my place (Proverbs 9:8).
But there is a time to hate when our hate is focused on concepts and on actions. In fact, if we are to be found wise, we will hate what God hates: haughty eyes and lying tongues, hearts that devise wicked plans (Prov 6:16), and divorce (Malichi 2:16) among others. When we do not have a hatred for wickedness, we are in danger of committing the sin ourselves. This can be fleshed out in our struggles with reoccurring sins.
K and A, when you have a problem with a sin, no matter how small or how big (and there are differences in sin no matter what others say), your victory over it is found in learning to fear the Lord and hating the sin as he does. I have found this true in my life. If I convince myself that the action is not that bad but "shouldn't" be done, I cannot stop doing it. When I see it as God sees it and hate what I am doing, then I sense the guilt and shame and victory is in sight!
Daughters, fear the Lord and hate evil. Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart (2 Timothy2:22). These will bring about the kind of life God desires (James 1:19).
~Dad
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