The soul that is given over to the love of self, which is the self-centeredness and pride of the fleshly nature, is a soul that is at enmity with the living God who commands supreme love for Himself in all things. The soul will reject and be at enmity with His authority and His commands. The authority of God commands human beings to be holy as He is holy and to love Him with all of their beings. The unbroken and unregenerate heart is given over to self-love and hates the command to give up its own authority and to do things for God rather than for self. This self-focused soul may be orthodox in its theology and have the outer appearances of love and good works, but without the supreme love of God in all things that soul is doing all it does out of enmity toward God. The authority of God is rejected with open hostility by some, though in others they come up with different ideas about God. The natural human heart, though perhaps very religious, does not want the true God in its knowledge.
Down deep in our souls we know that self-centeredness, selfishness, and pride are hateful things. We do hate them when we see them in others, but instead of hating them out of love for God we hate them because of our own pride and self-centeredness. Those that are ruled by self-love will love those that love them (Luke 6:32), but those that are ruled by the love of God in them can love even their enemies. Since those that are ruled by self-love love those that love them, they love all things for self. As long as God is seen as benevolent toward them and doing what they see as good to them, they will love that idea of God. As long as others do what they want and in accordance with their self-love and interests, they will love them. But when self is crossed, the love of self blinds them to how hateful self-centeredness and pride is. Self-love will does its blinding work by interpreting all things in light of itself. The self-love and self-centeredness of others is hateful to me because it is against my self-love.
When we see the inner-workings of the soul in this light, the bright light of God’s holiness and love for Himself as triune can be seen. For God His self-love is His holiness and for Him to share His love for Himself and His holiness with others requires them to love Him as their holiness. But the unbelieving soul hates God’s self-centeredness and His love for Himself because self wants to rule rather than God. Isaiah 6:3 gives us a picture of the holiness of God: “And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” There is at least a connection between God being thrice holy and the whole earth being full of His glory. It is because God is holy that the whole earth is full of His glory. Isaiah 42:8 tells us of God’s holiness: “I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images.” Isaiah 48:11 tells us even more of His holiness and glory: “For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another.” His holiness is to be focused on Himself.
We can see, then, that a human being that does not live to the glory of God in intent and from love is living in direct opposition to God Himself. The enmity can be clearly seen in that the holiness of God is that He will do all out of love for Himself and His own glory and yet a sinful human being lives for self. John 5:44 puts it this way: “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?” The pride and self-love of man wants to receive glory from human beings and in this the self-love and pride of man is displayed in its enmity toward God. The Pharisees prayed in order to receive honor from others (Mat 6:1, 5). They did not pray for the glory and honor of God as Jesus instructed (Mat 6:6), but they prayed in order to be seen and honored by men. They gave alms and fasted in order to receive notice and honor from men (Mat 6:2, 16). This shows us that it is possible to preach and do all sorts of religious activities from love for self and the desire to gain the notice and honor of human beings. If we do those things in order to be noticed and honored by men, we are at enmity with the living God who does all things for His own glory.
The book of Revelation speaks of what men need to repent of: “Men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory” (16:9). On the other hand, Psalm 115:1 shows us the heart of those that love God: “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, But to Your name give glory Because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your truth.” The one that loves God prays not to receive glory, but that the glory would be God’s. When sinners seek honor for self they are at enmity with the God who does all for His own glory. Wherever a person is seen that desires to be seen by men and to seek honor for self, there is a person that is in open enmity with God. If the person is using religious things to seek self, that person is even more at enmity with God. Self-love and pride is not just to focus on self more than what is healthy, it is to be in open warfare in its enmity toward the living God. Hatred for God is very common.
God Loves... Himself 
May 25, 2012 at 6:26 am |
I just read the 35 posts on hating God. The church today does not make the news of the problem man has to include anything Paul says in Rom 1 to 3 other than sinfulness.will result in a future problem. It instructs the world. W language. Not found in scripture and appeals with instruction to excercise their strength and procure a relationship by their own choosing. This necessarily. Violates about every truth about man’s condition and inability. To tell a sinner off hatred would be so rejected in even the most “reformed” churches. The removal of this truth is what enables the world to accept so many hirelings today. PAUL was chased out of town and bated I believe primarily because of the bad news. Jesus was the object of hatred when he heralded the condition of man. If we are faithful it must happen to us if we have the right message. Men will hate us and this news of hatred for God. If the world is not showing hatred for you then check your Gospel. You are probably omitting truth. Such you are proclaiming a lie. Which……pastor…makes you a liar. Nice work Richard…..thoughts?
May 25, 2012 at 8:37 am |
It seems that you put things rather plainly and to the point, which means your words are pointed. However, from my view of things they have more truth in them than hardly anyone would be willing to bear today. It does seem as if most of what goes on in Christianity today is more of a hiding of the glory and truth of God rather than displaying it. It appears that we are ashamed of certain things about God (like hate, wrath, and so on) and so we try to keep our orthodox status (whatever that is) by saying those things are true, but then we redefine them or don’t talk about them.
When people gush about the love of God and never speak of His wrath or hatred, most likely they don’t know what the love of God is either. If we don’t teach people that they hate God and what that means, then they won’t understand what the love of God really is. If we don’t teach people about the depravity of the human heart and part of that is suppressing the truth of God and exchanging the truth of God for a lie, then they will believe in lies. What is so fascinating about the irony of God is that those who hate God the most are the easiest to be deceived about His hatred and wrath on them. Perhaps that is part of the blindness that He sends on them in His judicial punishment. On the other hand, those whom He gives a true love for Him are those that love Him as He is and are not ashamed of His perfections like wrath and hatred.
One way men who don’t love the true God show this is by not teaching that part of depravity is that men hate God. But when they do this, they are showing an ignorance of the Gospel of grace alone because it is in and by the Gospel that man are brought to share in the true love of God. If the depths of depravity are hidden from men, then the Gospel is to that same degree hidden as well. But that is part of the judgment that is upon our nation and churches today. As God turns us over to a harder heart we are darkened to greater degrees of our enmity toward Him and therefore His enmity toward us and His hardening of our hearts as judicial punishment. The Gospel appears much different to those with blinded and hardened hearts than to those He has softened by showing them their enmity toward Him.