In the Shadow of the Cross

“To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance evil behavior and perverse speech.”
(Proverbs 8 : 13 NIV)

Fearing the Lord is not to be deathly afraid of Him, though one should be, but rather to Have a deep respect, honor, reverence and worship for Him as God, Father, Supreme Being and Creator. Fearing God is also having an unequalled reverence for God's attributes.
These attributes of God's character are highlighted in Ephesians.
God is Wise Ephesians 5:6
God is Loving Ephesians 2: 4-5
God is Glorious 1:12 3:16
God is Kind 2:7
God is Wrathful 5:6
God is Powerful 1:19 3:7,20 6:10
God is Accessible 2:13,18 3:12

One who fears God can say to “I will respect, honor and worship the Lord, and to do so, I will hate evil” God is not calling us to hate the evildoer, but rather the behavior and concept of evil. In the context of the first quotation from Proverbs, fearing our Lord comes from attaining wisdom. Wisdom is understood to be the daily application of what is known as true moral integrity of seeing life from God's point of view. How does one obtain this wisdom? It is obtained from the daily submersion and study of God's Word. As we gain wisdom, again by meditating on God's Word, we gain more respect and reverence for God. A natural by-product of this respecting God is seeing the true nature of evil. A severe distain and hatred for anything evil will manifest itself. Don't misunderstand this to be a license for hatred and distain for people, but rather of their evil behavior. Notice that in the verse above, God does not say He hates evil people. He says He hates evil behavior.

Evil is “anti-God” and “anti-Christ” in all aspects. A lover, worshipper of God cannot reconcile with evil. There is no compromising with evil. Toleration for evil should cease. Seeing life from God's point of view will become more and more clear. That's wisdom.

Hate evil, pride and arrogance….

What is pride? It is not - “ I was so proud of my son, he got all A's on his report card” That in an of itself is not pride, unless its foundation is one of not glorifying God in it. Pride could be seen as the first sin, committed by Lucifer. He was God's archangel, a wonderful beautiful creature. But this angel was prideful and desired the same status of God. He desired to be admired, honored and worshipped as God because of his beauty and station.

How you have fallen from Heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven, I will raise my throne above the stars of God, I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High. But you are brought down do the graves, to the depths of the pit”
(Isaiah 14 12-15 NIV)

Lucifer was the first creature to have the sin of pride. He wanted to be like God, He wanted to be God. Pride and arrogance go hand in hand. Arrogance is the ugly face of pride. Arrogance is shaking one's fist at God and saying, “I don't need you, I can make it happen on my own, I can do it, or I can create it without you”

Pride and arrogance produce evil behavior and perverse language as seen in Proverbs 8:13. That makes sense, does it not? If God is not in one's life, and this person is prideful and arrogant towards God, or even willfully ignorant towards God and His Word, then one is susceptible to behave immorally, and easily influenced by Satan, the world and its enticements and one's own evil desire.

Do you hate evil? Not the evil doer – but the evil behavior. Then you are in accord with God on this issue, and there is no better place to be. That is daily application of wisdom. But it takes daily discipline and the assistance from our Lord.

Folks, pride, arrogance, evilness is on the increase. It is penetrating every aspect of society. Just look around, you will see it for yourself. It will increase even more. We see abortion legal. We see the Ten Commandments stripped away from the county court houses. We see prayer outlawed. We see preachers arrested for preaching biblical doctrine. We see anything to do with Christ and God as abhorrent. We see our government chiseling away at the Christian foundation of this nation, and looking toward Europe for direction on moral/legal issues. We see fame and celebrity honored and glorified, while our Lord and Savior's name is being spit upon.

But God sits on the throne! God is supreme. God hates pride and arrogance and evil behavior. It will serve us all well to listen to that verse in Proverbs. God will have the final word on this subject.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All Rights Reserved.

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