Introduction: We live in a world of simulacra, emojis, and memes. Depth can be hard to find. It’s the age of shallowness, that’s certain. But there is at least one emoji I admit to relishing: it’s the one of having one’s mind blown. It looks like this:

I use it often when, paradoxically, something is mind-numbingly stupid. I just shake my head and go, “Lord, have mercy.” Or as older generations were wont to say, “Bless your heart,” a genteel way of saying you’re less than bright.

Questions: Have you ever heard folks say, “God is love”? Sure. Some folks might even allude to the actual text from 1 John 4. The entire verse 8 reads, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” But the first part of that verse, much less the larger context of the entire passage, is usually dropped, and all we hear is the “God is love” part, clipped from the rest of the context.

But when’s the last time you heard that God hates, too? I’d wager it’s not often, if ever. But guess what? God does hate. His hatred pervades Scripture, in fact. Here’s just a small sample:

• Proverbs 6:16-19 lists more than half a dozen things God hates:

There are six things that the Lord hates,
seven that are an abomination to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that make haste to run to evil,
a false witness who breathes out lies,
and one who sows discord among brothers.

• In Psalm 5, David writes, “You [God] destroy those who speak lies; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man” (Psalm 5:6).

Proverbs 8:13 says, “The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil/Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.”

Encouragement/takeaway: Here’s the point, dear ones. It’s a good thing that God hates because it’s hatred of evil that reveals God’s utter holiness. If He did not abhor what is evil, He would not be good. Hell, therefore, is a good thing, because it demonstrates God’s holiness and hatred of evil and His love of righteousness.

To return to the above reference to the emoji of having one’s mind blown, that’s why I appreciate that particular simulacrum. It reveals how utterly shallow it is when people say utter “God is love, love, love” bromides divorced from the biblical witness. God is love, yes; but God loves holiness and abhors sin. That’s why God’s hatred is a good hatred. “Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature” (1 Corinthians 14:20).