"The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth do I hate."
Proverbs 8:13
“The fear of the LORD is to hate evil:”
Fearing the LORD is a crucial topic in the Word of God. In fact, I found 278 times in the Bible that the “fear of the LORD” is mentioned. Having a proper fear or respect for the LORD makes a great difference in how our relationship with Him goes. Look at these blessings for “fearing the LORD.”
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom…,” (Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 9:10).
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge…,” (Proverbs 1:7).
“The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life,…” (Proverbs 14:27).
“The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom…” (Proverbs 15:33).
“In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge,” (Proverbs 14:26).
In our verse for today, a right fear of the LORD produces a holy hatred of sin. Yes, we believers do rightly hate some things. Some Christians may have the mistaken idea that the believer’s life is only one of “love” and “good feelings.” This is not so. The godly believer lives by promise and commandment, not by his “feelings.” I must add this thought, “right feelings” follow “right actions,” eventually. When we do right, we feel right. We do not check our feelings and then decide whether or not we will obey. We do right when we live by God’s Word.
Yes, the things that break God’s heart should break ours as well. The things that He says He hates, we too should detest. God hates sin, and so should we.
“Pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth do I hate.”
Here are some sins, that God hates.
Pride and arrogance. Pride describes the condition of the heart, and arrogance the high look, a haughtiness that sees itself as better than others. Pride keeps a person thinking incorrectly about himself, where arrogance leads a person to act wrongly toward others. God hates both sins!
The evil way. The bad, wrong way to go. It can be either the wrong path or the bad way of doing things. In either since it is the result of wrong choices. This is a sad commentary on those who know that there is a right way, God’s way, and yet they still chose to go their own, evil way. This makes sense in the person who is proud, he thinks he can make his own choices as the boss of his life. He can, to his own peril.
The froward mouth. And yes, the word is “froward” even though my spell-check thinks it should be “forward.” Froward means “perverse” or “crooked.” This man speaks lies, crooked things come from his mouth, he cannot be trusted!
“Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things,” (Proverbs 2:11-12).
Believer, do you love what God loves, and hate what He hates? The fear of the LORD teaches us this principle.