Whoever Hates

Proverbs 26:24-26 "Whoever hates disguises himself with his lips and harbors deceit in his heart. When he speaks graciously, do not believe him, for there are seven abominations in his heart. Though his hatred be covered with deception, his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly."

These verses suggest that in the assembly of God's elect, though hateful people disguise themselves with lies and gracious speech, their wickedness will be exposed. How?

"there are seven abominations in his heart".

What are the seven abominations that would expose the wickedness of hateful people?

Proverbs 6:16 says, "There are six things that The Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to Him;

1).haughty eyes
(surmising, hostile, unkind, jealous, envious, mean, nasty, condemning or indifferent)
2).a lying tongue
(or even one that merely suggests or insinuates false things about others)
3).hands that shed innocent blood
(Jesus said if you hate your brother you've committed murder in your heart already)
4).a heart that devises wicked plans
(planning anything outside of God's will)
5).feet that make haste to run to evil
(they long for and look forward to the next opportunity to indulge in wrong doing of any kind)
6).a false witness who breathes out lies
(also includes gossip, malicious talk, surmising, one who leaves out the truth)
7).one who sows discord among brothers
(inspiring disharmony, distrust, anger, defensiveness, hostility, uneasiness or sorrow)

These markers are fairly straight forward. Consider, Are you like this? Do you hang around anyone like this?

Jesus was willing to walk with many sinners. But He never spent time validating or bolstering the confidence of unrepentant people who continually run back to their sinful ways and then try to justify or down play it.

These people desire to indulge in wickedness. Their hearts beat faster at the thought of it, and their ears tingle with wicked glee when they hear tidbits of gossip. They delight to know it and seek it out. And they delight to spread it around. They don't care who gets hurt. They actually desire to hurt the reputations of others with their lies and half truths.

But they know that such behavior is unacceptable for God's people so they use language that would deceive others in order to blend in with them. They often manipulate those in the church and play upon their sympathy, but though their speech may be gracious, but do not believe them. Consider their reputations and their habits, the "fun" they seek out, including the kind of conversation they engage in both publicly or privately. And consider what they do to others. Do they build them up, or tear others down? Are they forgiving or do they harbor bitterness and condemnation for those whom they feel have hurt them?

It is good to consider the Psalmists words in Psalm 1:1

"Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers".