Proverbs 26:24

Proverbs 26:24 He who hates, disguises it with his lips, And lays up deceit within himself;

Hate is an old, old sin and it has it's roots in complete selfishness. Cain hated and killed his brother because his brother's offering was accepted and his was not. God reveals to us in the Word that it was the condition of Cain's heart and not his selection of offering that was rejected (Heb 11:4, 1John 3:12, Jude 1:11). Cain wanted to be accepted on his own terms, not on God's. (The same sin of Satan, to be God instead of worshipping and submitting to the true God.) We must come to God on His terms, after all, He is God and has the right to rule the universe the way He wants to. Of course His character is love and just, and the Lord simply wanted men to come to Him with a heart of humility and love, not one of pride and arrogance.

Jesus tells us that to hate someone is to murder them (Matt. 5:21-22, 43-44). So many people were thinking that they could be religious and obey the law of God as long as they simply didn't kill anyone physically. But Jesus clarifies the heart of God and tells us that to hate someone in your heart is the same as murder. To hate is to have disdain for, to wish that that thing or person was not there; hence murder. Jesus is also making the point that the Father cares about what is in the heart, not just what one does on the outside where everyone else can see.

James tells us (James 2) that we must not show partiality. To hate someone is to show partiality, it is to judge them in our own eyes by our own standard. To hate someone is to say that we are better, that we are more acceptable to God - ultimately to say that God show's preference because obviously "He likes me more than that person." God is not partial (Rom. 2:11) and there are servere consequences for misrepresenting Him. The judgement that we judge others with will be our judge (Matt 7:1-2, Rom. 2:1).

Ultimately hate, as it should go without saying, is the absence of love, God's giving, caring, and active love - demonstrated so wonderfully at the cross of Christ. (John 3:16, 1 Cor. 13) Hate is to commit murder, to judge, to show preference, to call God impartial.

When someone hates in their heart, but says the acceptable thing on the outside, to avoid conflict, to be religous; it has very negative consequences both to that person and to others. When deceit, that is, lies, are stored up in a person's heart, lies about who others are, about their motives, about their person - bitterness results. That root of bitterness grows until it causes self-deception ("I'm the righteous one.") and eventually, destruction. Bitterness causes not only spiritual destruction but emotional and physical, firstly with the person harboring that bitterness and secondly with all the people that it is poured out upon. Bitterness robs people of the freedom that Christ died to give us, freedom from sin. God forgive us if we rob a man of their ability to see Jesus and His gift of life!