It is not a pleasant thought to think that true believers are joining with those that hate the LORD. It is not pleasant on at least four counts. One, it is not pleasant to think this because of the greatness and glory of God who deserves a true and pure love. Two, it is not pleasant to think of because of believers who are being deceived. Three, it is not pleasant to think of because of unbelievers who are being deceived. Four, it is not pleasant to think of because the nature of true and pure Christianity is being diluted and misrepresented. The world appears to have taken over in many ways and much of what seems to be happening in the professing Church is more like the world than of Christ. This is simply appalling and unacceptable. Even worse, it is wickedness.
Why is it that the world wants to be religious? Why is it that ministers that don’t believe the Bible at all still want to be a minister? Why do so many people in our day want to be religious in some way? Psalm 81:15 has one part of the answer: “Those who hate the LORD would pretend obedience to Him.” The context of this passage is what would happen to the enemies of Israel if Israel would follow the LORD. Instead of the people listening to the LORD, they followed their own wisdom which came from their own stubborn hearts. This is true of the professing Church today. It is following after the wisdom of men instead of the LORD Himself. In the context of Psalm 81:15 they were told that if they would listen to the LORD He would subdue their enemies who would then pretend obedience to Him. The same is true today. When the LORD rises even His enemies pretend obedience to Him. There are still many people in our day that know that they will die and be in the hands of the living God. That moves them to a pretended obedience. But they have not had their hearts changed to where they love God.
On the other hand, there is the tendency of those that hate God to exalt themselves. Psalm 83:2 tells us this: “For behold, Your enemies make an uproar, And those who hate You have exalted themselves.” Psalm 83 is in the context of those that hate Israel and want to destroy them. It is also a prayer for God to destroy His and Israel’s enemies. The principle is that those that hate God exalt themselves. The Pharisees hated God as seen by their hatred for Jesus. John 15:23 shows that: “He who hates Me hates My Father also.” They used religion to exalt themselves over others. When they prayed and gave alms they sought the honor of others (Matthew 6:1-6). When the true God is hated, people seek to exalt themselves in many ways. Some want to take leadership in churches as a way to exalt themselves. Others want to distort the teaching of the Bible and yet it is to exalt themselves. It is not inconsistent with the hatred of God to desire to be exalted in the things of religion.
In our day people judge the success of a church by the numbers. For some reason they seem to think that God is impressed with numbers, though it may be more likely that it is more like the Pharisees who sought honor among men. The focus of a church is to be God. A church is only successful in a biblical sense if God is present among it. On the other hand, it may have a million members and be a total failure. It is so easy in that atmosphere to be one that exalts self and also bring in false theology and practices. As the Israelites did not think that they were committing idolatry when the made the golden calf, so many today do not see it as a problem to be innovative in things of theology and bringing people into a building under the idea of church. It is within the heart of all human beings to be to one degree or another religious. It is also within the sinful heart of unregenerate human beings to twist and distort the true God in order to live as they please and even to worship as they please.
Scripture is clear that believers are commanded to love their enemies. However, there is a distinction to make here. While we are commanded to love our personal enemy, that is not the same thing as those that that clearly hate and oppose the living God. While all unbelievers hate God, there are those that have given themselves over to a fuller hatred of Him. Num 10:35 is an example of this: “Then it came about when the ark set out that Moses said, “Rise up, O LORD! & let Your enemies be scattered, And let those who hate You flee before You.” This was from the most humble man on earth at the time (Num 12:3). Perhaps the Church needs to consider things like this more. We like the idea that we are to be nice to everybody and think that God will be nice to us. True love, however, loves the objects of its love enough to hate those that want to harm the objects of its love. If we love God with the love that He puts in us, we will not always be nice and polite to those that hate Him and abuse His holy name. If we will defend the family we love, we should speak for our God and defend His name against those that hate Him. Those that oppose and hate the Church of the living God and God Himself are different than just being personal enemies of believers. This is a subject that needs a lot more thought. But can it be said that we love God if we love those that utterly hate and despise Him and His Church?
God Loves... Himself 
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