“Hate” has gotten a bad rap in our culture lately. If you take a principled position on an issue, that’s considered hateful towards those on the opposite. Then there are “hate crimes,” where a person may voice his position against a group that is protected against such opinions. Hate crimes are usually added infractions on top of already evil, wicked, and hateful crimes such as murder or rape.

So Christians shy away from “hate” and try to remain nice and neutral. The only problem with that is our God is one who hates! David says of God in Psalm 5 “…you hate all evildoers…the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.” In Amos 5:21 the LORD declares “I hate, I despise your feasts.” Even Jesus says to his church in Rev 2:6, “…you hate the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”

Should we follow suit after our God? Of course! In that most famous of Psalms, 139, David exclaims, right after declaring God’s thoughts are precious to him, “…do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD?…I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.” In Psalm 119:113, he says “I hate the double-minded, but I love your law.” Or in Psalm 26:5, “I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked.” Again, even Jesus said you must hate your family, and even your own life, if you want to be his disciple (Luke 14:26).

Quite shocking, I know, but all easily understood: Christians must take positions against the evil and wicked and side with their Lord. After all, Jesus is not afraid to hate the wicked — he’ll be banishing them to hell, forever, soon enough!

So think about this, and humbly, because I would really hate it if you don’t have a biblical notion of hate. And so would Jesus. He wants you clearly on his side.

Christians often exhibit a low self-esteem when talking about their own faithfulness. They don’t want to brag about holiness, which is fine. But often they are too reluctant to give God the glory and acknowledge what they have done by the power of the Spirit working within them. They have a hard time embracing Philippians 2:12 which says “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that God is at work in you…” They’ll praise the Lord but get really squeamy if you praise them for being faithful and conscientious in the salvation that was given to them.

Psalm 26:1 is a tough one: “Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.” We think, “David is being a little pompous here. Nobody trusts in the Lord without wavering.”

Psalm 7:8 is also tough: “…judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.” My righteousness? My integrity?

Well, yes. If you are baptized in Christ, then you have been washed of your sins and clothed with Jesus, meaning the Holy Spirit also dwells in you to lead you in the ways and teachings and faithfulness of Jesus (Acts 2:38; 1 Cor. 6:11; Romans 6:3-4). That’s who you stand in, and from that standing you move out in obedience and trust and faithfulness in all you do. It’s that simple. It’s like Christian who was given new clothing when his burden rolled down the hill and also given God’s scroll to read and follow on his path to the Celestial City!

I think we always read passages with horror like “Let them be turned back and disappointed who devise evil against me” only to find out that these are David’s covenant friends: “I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother, as one who laments his mother” (Psalm 35:4, 14).

Or, “Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me. And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest…,” only to find out that it’s not an enemy, but it is “…my companion, my familiar friend. We used to take sweet counsel together, within God’s house we walked in the throng.” Yet David continues, “Let death steal over them; let them go down to Sheol alive; for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart” (Psalm 55:5-6, 13b-15).

What shocks us is that a brother or sister could fall away from the Lord so much that David is asking pretty heavy judgment upon them: death and Sheol because evil has ensnared them through and through.

While it’s hard for us moderns to sit in any judgment seat, David does not shrink back, and neither should we. People fall away, dearest Christians betray Jesus and others: King Saul, Absalom, Judas, Alexander the Coppersmith.

What are you to do? Remember the cloud of witnesses that surround you, lay aside the sin which clings so closely, and run the faithful race with endurance, all the while looking to Jesus (Hebrews 12:1-2). And, taking care there be no unbelieving heart in yourself that falls away from the living God, while exhorting and being exhorted yourself, such that you are not hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. You want to strive to be firm in Christ till the end! (Hebrews 3:12-14).