“There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.” – Proverbs 6:16-19

1. Haughty eyes – “Haughty” in Hebrew can be translated as “to lift up”.  An example of haughty eyes is in Isaiah 10:12, where God punishes Assyria because of the haughty look in its eyes.  Assyria saw the destruction of Israel as an opportunity to bring wealth and power to its kingdom through looting, plundering, and expanding its kingdom.  For us, haughty eyes can be thought of as the opposite of humility.  In Philippians 2:5-11, Paul talks about how Christ did not raise himself high, rather he made himself nothing and became a servant.  When we allow pride to creep in and compare ourselves to others with the mindset that we are greater, this allows us an opportunity to act in a haughty manner. (See Having an Attitude Like Christ Jesus.)
2. Lying tongue – This is pretty self-explanatory.  When we speak deceitfully and do not tell the truth, God hates this.
3. Hands that shed innocent blood – This is self-explanatory as well. Here, “hands”  in Hebrew is translated as an open hand, where openness indicates power, means, direction, etc.  This is not talking about involuntary manslaughter, but the violent act of cold murder.  God hates this.
4. Heart that devises wicked schemes – For someone that has sinful/evil/wicked plans, they usually make these plans in secret.  God hates a heart that devises such plans.
5. Feet that are quick to rush into evil – This is someone that rushes into doing evil.  We are supposed to remain in fervent prayer (Colossians 4:12) and by remaining in prayer (not necessarily on your knees, but even while at work), we can find our strength to overcome evil.  By going through the process of sanctification, we are learning more about God, gaining His wisdom and understanding, and strengthening our spirits.  Through sanctification we can better distinguish God vs. satan since we are learning more about God, and therefore, sin is becoming more apparent.  By not going through this process, we will not be able to afford ourselves the option to be prayerful against sin, because more than half the time, we don’t recognize when we are sinning.  So first comes sanctification to have the wisdom on how to flee from sin and then comes prayer to strengthen our spirits.
6. False witness that pours out lies – This connects to point number 3 – hands that shed innocent blood.  Not necessarily in the sense of murder, but by bearing false witness against someone who really is innocent, can be considered hatred.  Those that hold hatred against someone in their hearts is actually murdering that person, just as the one who lusts commits adultery.  By bearing false witness, you are harming the innocent.
7. A man who stirs up dissension among his brothers – This is not talking about rebuking or correcting those that do wrong.  In 1 Corinthians 5:10, Paul tells us not to separate ourselves from the sin of the world (for then we must take ourselves out of this world – which is impossible), but rather separate yourselves from the sin of an immoral brother (sin within the church).  Therefore, this is talking about the brother/sister who sins, and by their sin, they stirred up dissension and spread strife among other members within the church.  In this case, we are called to correct the sinner.  If they do not acknowledge their sin, then we are called to separate ourselves from that sinner.  When they confess, they are forgiven – when we confess, we are forgiven.  But without repentance, we are considered a sinner and in this case, we are called to do what the Holy Spirit tells us to do do in 1 Corinthians 5:10 – separate yourself from the sin in the church.  God hates the one who sins within their church, where the sin affects others in a negative way.

These seven things represent the complete list of the flaws in man that God hates.  Seven represents fullness – on the seventh day, God’s creation was complete.  The seventh day is the Sabbath and we will enter our eternal sabbath after the resurrection, the completion of God’s plan.  The good news is that if we repent, we are forgiven through Christ!

-Mark

UPDATE: Check out Sin that does not lead to Death.  Many times, we unintentionally commit one of these sins in the above.  God does forgive us.

One thing that has been convicting me a lot lately is speaking about what the disobedient do.  Such shameful things to speak about come up in conversations about a bad experience at a church or a disagreement among believers.  In the beginning, such shameful things are fruitful to talk about so we are called to expose these disobedient deeds.  But it is important to draw a fine line between unfruitful talking and fruitful exposing.  Take a look at the following verses:

“Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.  For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.” Ephesians 5:11-12

This passage is tucked away yet infinitely important.  We are called to be children of light and walk as such.  The standard required of us is so great, but not heavy.  It is a matter of knowing light from dark and choosing light.  Here, we see that it is a shame to even mention the sins that are committed in secret.  There is a subconscious desire in man to sin in secret, outside of the public eye yet, never leaving the sight of God.  Such disobedience, although completely individualized and isolated from the body of believers, is just as reckless as sin that is not done in secret.  Concluding that all sin, whether secret or not secret, is so anti-Christ that to even speak of the sin is shameful for you.

1 John 1:6 says “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.”  Thus, we are called to not even speak of darkness, whether committed openly or in secret.  True, this verse in 1 John is interpreted as our battle against sin.  But if to even mention what the disobedient do in secret is not of the light, then isn’t to do so not walking by the truth?

What deeds are darkness, disobedient, or sinful?  Deeds that are fruitless.  For further reading on fruits, check out Judging others by their fruits.  A fruitless deed does not just mean an outcome that produces no results.  A fruitless deed can be a deed which seems to produce positive results.  However, biblical fruit is mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

Therefore, if the fruit from Galatians 5:22-23 is not produced, it is not fruit at all.  And if the deed is fruitless, we are told to have nothing to do with it.  In other words, separate yourself from the deeds that the individual performs, not the individual.  Why not the individual?  Because we are called to be fisher of men. (Unless the individual does not repent of their sin, we know that they have no place in the house of God and we are called to part ourselves from such spirits – 1 Corinthians 5:11.)

What is the fine line between exposing these fruitless deeds and mentioning the sin of the disobedient? It is at the point where exposing such darkness no longer bears fruit and at this point, you yourself are participating in a fruitless deed and becoming a gossiper and slanderer.  Again what fruit must exposing them bear?  Refer to the above – the biblical fruit mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23.  At the point that exposing the fruit no longer becomes edifying, you are fellowshipping with darkness and not living by the truth.  Therefore, Ephesians 5:12 can serve as a warning; a warning to guard your tongue so that you can remain blameless, otherwise, you too will be cruising down a reckless path and branching off the sin of another.

-Mark

Since the bible mentions that there is an elect (Mark 13:27, 1 Timothy 5:21, 2 Timothy 2:10, 1 Peter 1:1), this must imply that there is a non-elect.  Elect in Greek is eklektos which means the favorite or chosen one.  But does God show favoritism?

Two verses which are used to demonstrate that God does not show favoritism are Acts 10:34 where Peter says “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism” and  Romans 2:11 where Paul says “God does not show favoritism”.

The Greek word used for favoritism in Acts 10:34 is prosōpolēptēs which translates to an accepter of a face.  The root to this word is prosōpon, which can be defined as the outward appearance of a person.  In other words, Peter was saying that he realized how true it is that God does not discriminate based upon appearance – it does not matter whether a man is Jewish, Gentile, white, black, poor, or rich, God will save a man “not because of righteous things had did, but because of His mercy” (Titus 3:5). In Romans 2:11, Paul uses the Greek word prosōpolēpsia, which means a respecter of persons.  The difference between what Peter and Paul were saying is that Peter was saying that God does not show partiality in regards to outward appearance and Paul was saying that God does not show partiality in regards to conditions in life.

The doctrine of favoritism is sometimes used to oppose the doctrine of the elect. What needs to be made clear is that favoritism belongs to the administration of justice and election to the exercise of mercy. Throughout scripture, it is clear that God demonstrates a difference in bestowing benefits, but not in exercising Judgment.

In the example in Acts and Romans, Peter and Paul were speaking about the gift of salvation not just belonging to the Jews; prior to Christ, God demonstrated a difference in bestowing benefits for the Gentile had only the law of nature, but the Jew had a revealed law. Yet when brought to judgment there was to be no respect of persons, each was to be judged impartially. Moreover, election does not exist on the principle of showing favoritism, that is, of regarding men according to their privileges, outward appearance, or condition in life, or any thing in man; but its only exclusive ground is in the mercy of God.  Again, to reiterate Titus 3:5, we were elected by God not because of any righteous thing we had done but because of His mercy.  God’s mercy is bestowed because somehow in God’s divine and redemptive plan, we will be used. And outside of God’s plan, all of man would die in sin.

To further demonstrate how the doctrines of favoritism and election are mutually exclusive through the principles of administration of judgment and exercising of mercy, it is important to understand man’s condition without God. In Isaiah 10:5-7, God tells the Assyrians “Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger, in whose hand is the club of my wrath! I send him against a godless nation, I dispatch him against a people who anger me, to seize loot and snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets. But this is not what he intends, this is not what he has in mind; his purpose is to destroy, to put an end to many nations.”

God sent Assyria against Israel to loot, plunder, and rule over.  But Assyria had other intentions: to completely destroy Israel and other nations.

Further down in 10:12, God says “When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes.”

God sent sinful Assyria to trample Israel, and then he also condemned Assyria because of its willful pride in its heart.  This is the story of those that are a slave to the sinful nature.  They live in a world of sin and will be condemned because they continue to sin in both the absence and presence of God.  Through Christ, the chains of sin are broken through the exercising of mercy.  Without Christ, God has not condemned the non-elect because in their sinful desires they willfully sin.  Therefore, God justfully administers justice.

Romans 1:18-32 describes why sin is spreading in this world.  Because the world refuses to acknowledge God, God gave the world over to the sinful desires of its heart.  God’s judgment is just because he is not causing man to sin but man inherently sins because he refuses to acknowledge God.  Therefore, God set apart children of His own not by playing favorites but because without having children of His own, all man would die in their sinful ways.  Through keeping a remnant of His own, God is glorifying His name and God’s will is that His name be glorified.  In other words, since God’s will is that His name be glorified, mercy only exists so that through the elect, God’s will can be accomplished.

So to those that speak about the non-elect: remember that God does not cause them to sin and then condemns them.  Rather, they are inherently sinners and refuse to acknowledge God.  In the administering of justice, all men will be judged and judged equally for their actions.  In the exercise of mercy through an election, God only elects to accomplish His will and the election is not based upon personal merit or righteousness, rather God’s divine plan and mercy.

-Mark

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.  It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age” – Titus 2:11-12

Grace can be defined as the sovereign grace bestowed upon a man when he accepts the gift given by God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins.  Grace is a free gift given to all men.  However, true grace is the grace that leads to sanctification.

“Teaching” (2:12) in the Greek is defined as “to raise up, educate, or discipline.”  The grace of God is evident through God’s discipline.  Heb 12:8 says “If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.”  In discipline, there is hope (Provers 19:18).

What is true grace?  Many in the Christian church falsely acknowledge that they have received the grace of God by saying “yes” to Jesus Christ.  But James 2:19 says “you believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that–and shudder.”

Therefore, grace does not come from the acknowledgment that Jesus Christ is the atoning sacrifice.  The demons know this and this is why they shudder.  Grace is given to the one that loves the Lord’s discipline.  For the one that loves the Lord’s discipline has weighed the costs of being a believer.  The spirit of grace is poured out on the one that love’s discipline and since he is a true believer, the true believer that received true grace will be sanctified.  Grace disciplines us and teaches us to say no to sin.  And as Galatians 5:24 says “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.”

Those that deny grace are rejecting the discipline that comes from God.  Proverbs 5:23 says “He will die for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.”  If grace is what saves us, then the man that dies lacks it.  Similarly, the man that dies lacked discipline.  The bible teaches that faith plus sanctification is how we are saved.  And again, if by grace we are saved, then by grace we have faith and by grace we are disciplined to become sanctified.

Readers, test the spirits.  You will know a man by his fruit.  The modern church is preaching a message of once saved, always saved, and never sanctified.  This is false.  Do not be caught into this trap, but strive to attain sanctification!  Only then will true grace be poured out.  Am I saying that it is by our doing that we receive grace?  No.  But as we accept the Lord’s discipline, we are witnessing God’s love for us.  As we reject His discipline or shy away from it, we are denying God’s grace.

-Mark