Proverbs 6:16–19 lists the things that God hates. Since I am made in His image, should I hate those things as well?

I’m glad you recognize that God does hate evil in very specific ways. The things that are the objects of His hatred in these passages include arrogance, deception, murder of the innocent, a conniving heart, the readiness to “run” to evil, false testimony, and troublemaking.

Throughout Scripture, we read that God speaks strongly against these things (Deut. 25:16; Prov. 3:32; Prov. 12:22; James 1:26; Matt. 5:28). If you study these and other passages, you can create a long list of attitudes and behaviors that God hates, ranging from repellent sexual practices to pagan forms of worship to unjust acts. But to sum it all up: God hates evil.

The Psalmist enjoins us in the following words, “Let those who love the LORD hate evil!” (Ps. 97:10). In other words, we cannot be lukewarm Christians. And we can’t let cultural trends dictate which sins to hate and which to minimize. Abortion, for example, has lately not been as great a focus of the Christian’s outrage, yet it is the murder of the utterly innocent, the taking of human life. False testimonies are lies, the “deception” mentioned in Proverbs.

God is not a respecter of persons; He hates evil wherever it is found. If we love Him, and study His Word to know Him, our minds will become more and more in tune with Him, loving what He loves and hating what He hates. To be committed to righteousness is to know what is evil, something that becomes clearer and clearer as we read God’s Word and know His character.