04 September 2007 Devotion for Today “We Get What We Tolerate” Proverbs 6:16-19
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 dissention among brothers. (Proverbs 6:16-19)
When most people think of God, they think of a God who loves-especially a God who loves us. Isn’t that what we think of? A God who loves us unconditionally, with a love so great that He sent His only Son to die on the Cross for our sins. Why did He do that? Because God’s love is directly proportional to His hatred. We don’t often hear about the hatred of God. God is a person- actually He is three Persons. That means He has personality, and to have personality, one must also possess emotion. God has emotion- maybe not human emotion, and certainly not sinful emotion, but He definitely has emotion. We as humans tend to think of love, compassion, empathy, as good emotions- and anger, sorrow, and hate as bad emotions.
What makes love a good emotion and hate as a bad emotion? It’s what we do with them, as sinful human beings, that makes them good or bad but they are not inherently good or bad in themselves. Fire, for example, can be a good or a bad thing depending on how we use it. If we use fire to cook a heart meal at a campsite, it is a wonderful thing. But if we leave that same fire unattended at night and a spark jumps out and catches the grass and leaves on fire, and starts burning our tents while we slept, then we say that fire is bad. No, its not the fire that is good or evil, its how we used it, or neglected it, that caused it to become good or bad to us. The same is true of emotion.
God’s emotion however is perfect. In God there exists no bad thing. But as God is capable of expressing love, He is also capable of expressing hate. And God shows us in the passage I shared with you seven things the Lord hates-things that are detestable to Him, and refuses to tolerate before Him. He will not allow it to exist without calling attention to it (in His own time, and own way, of course) and destroying it and punishing the wrong-doer. But He will not allow it to pass unnoticed. Lies, betrayal of trust, pride, murder, causing trouble are some He expresses here. Some He mentions more than once, so you know He especially hates lies, which God mentions twice, and the act of stirring up strife or contention which He actually refers to three times. Five out of Seven things God hates are related to telling lies or stirring up trouble- giving us the idea that we ought to think twice about doing either one!
Dr. Henry Cloud, in his book 9 Things You Simply Must Do, says that most people do not build up a proper immune system when it comes to the things they tolerate. This is why sin enters our lives so easily. “Just as water seeks the lowest level, dysfunction seeks the lowest level of tolerance. If your standard for what you require in life and relationships is low, bad things will ooze into your life just as water dribbles to the lowest spot of ground. If you allow mistreatment, then people who mistreat others will find you and you will get what you tolerate.” (p.158). Wise people do not tolerate evil or dysfunction. “They send out the antibodies, mark it for what it is, and end it. They do not destroy the person or the relationship in the process, but they do not tolerate the infection.” (p.160).
Choosing what we hate is serious business. Remember that what you do not hate is going to find itself into your life. Like a fungus, it may even sap out all of your strength and destroy you if you do not seek to destroy it. Learn to hate, not tolerate sin which is around you. Go on a search and destroy mission against that which God hates in your life and destroy it!
Have a blessed day!
Rev. Jeffery C. Russell
Elizabeth City, NC
jefferyrussell@embarqmail.com
jcrussell@liberty.edu
Church website: http://25621.lifewaylink.com
Devotion Archives: http://www.msnusers.com/DevotionforToday
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