When we hate other human beings, there is something about them we are disgusted with and have an aversion to. This is true of God as well. Psalm 81:15: “Those who hate the LORD would pretend obedience to Him.” The people this text speaks about actually have an aversion to God and yet they pretend obedience to them. The context of this passage is speaking of the people of Israel. God is calling them to listen to His voice, but they didn’t and so He turned them over to hardness of heart. These people knew more of God than the other nations, but their hearts did not love Him. So instead of listening to His voice they pretended obedience to Him. This pretended obedience is one where the externals are done and some moral things are done, but the heart is far from Him. They know that there is a God and that He can and will punish them, so they pretend obedience to Him out of self-love.
What must be understood is that hearts that pretend obedience hate God in reality. These are the same hearts that are refusing to keep the knowledge of God in their minds (Romans 1:18-32) in order that they may love themselves and their idols. The Pharisees hated God and yet kept a stringent obedience to God in the externals. They gave lip service to God while with their stringent keeping of the Law was a lowering of the Law and a mocking of God. We see their extreme aversion to God by their aversion to the teachings of Jesus Christ. They plotted to kill Him despite His miracles and biblical teachings. It would have been very hard to deny the reality of His miracles, but their hearts were so averse to God that they just wanted to get rid of Him. They had their own religion and they did not need God to come along and tell them the truth about Himself and how to worship Him. Al Gore filmed a fiction movie called “An Inconvenient Truth.” If Jesus were to make a movie about the Pharisees He could entitle it the same. He who was truth itself and the only true way to God was hated by the Pharisees in both His Person and in His words. He was hated, as Scripture tells us, without cause (John 15:25).
It is easy to shake our heads at the Pharisees and keep on going in our own opposition and hatred of God. There are many politically correct religions and there are many hyper-conservative religions that are not born out of love for God but instead come from a hatred of Him. The Gospel is rare today because very religious people who hate God have come up with another gospel that they like better. It is true that they use the word and shed tears at the words of their pseudo-gospels, but that does not mean that the true Gospel is loved by them. Instead they have come up with false gospels because they hate the true God that shines in the real one. False gospels do not always just come up because people misunderstand some facts, but they come up because people hate God. Wherever the true God shines hatred for Him is sure to follow. Even those who hate Him will pretend obedience to Him (in their own way) while they try to cast the truth about Him which they hate behind them.
There are many forms of Christianity today that pretend obedience to Him while the adherents go on their own ways with a true aversion to the true God. It is easy to hide our aversion to God behind some of the externals that have come up today. We can hide our aversion to the true God by finding groups that teach self-love instead of love for God. We can hide our true aversion to God by finding groups that teach extremely conservative teaching (usually a great focus on the externals) in the name of the Bible. We can hide our true aversion and hatred of God by hiding it in all forms of religious activity, even doing good things. True Christianity is of the heart and is fueled by love for the true God. False Christianity is anything else no matter how rigorous the outward activities are.
It is easy to point to the liberals and think or say how deceived they are. It is far harder to look at conservative denominations and people and see hatred for God in them. One reason that is hard is because they are so much like “me” and certainly “I” am not that way. We must see that people who hate God will band together under differing forms of religion and religious practices because the sinful person loves those who love him or her. The group can easily deceive itself because they all agree that their hatred for God is actually love. We can make evangelism out to be true Christianity and hide our real hatred of God by “evangelism.” We can express love for self and hatred of God by twisting the Scriptures. We can love self and hate God in our prayers as we focus on self instead of Him. We can express love for self and hatred of God in choosing to worship in ways we like rather than the ways set out in Scripture. God is thoroughly hated in our day and that among very religious people. How can I say that? The Bible tells me so. People can be easily fooled by external religion, but God can see the hatred and aversion for Him that those things can cover over. He knows our hearts thoroughly despite our best efforts to hide them from Him and ourselves. If our obedience is truly a pretense to cover our hatred for Him, the exposure on judgment day will teach us that we have waited far too long to be honest about our own hearts.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment