The world is totally backwards when it comes to what human beings are to love supremely and what they are to hate. This basically means that people love self and hate God. But why do people find it so easy to love self and hate God and so hard to hate self and love God? In the modern day the love of self is thought to be at the root of all proper behavior and it is simply denied that people hate God. The Bible, however, is quite clear that men are at enmity with God and that the love of self is at the root of sin.
Ex 20:5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
Romans 5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Romans 8:7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,
Colossians 1:21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—
The passages above show that the sinful heart is at enmity with and is hostile toward God. The passage from Exodus is part of the 2nd Commandment and gives the punishment for violating the 2nd Commandment by the worship of idols. Those who worship idols are said to hate God. The Matthew passage shows that for all people God is either served or He is hated. Those who are devoted to self, wealth, sports, or any other devotion that is not God are devoted to that and despise all that opposes that. Those who love self supremely, which is all those who don’t love God supremely, hate God because He commands them to die to self and deny self in order to love Him. When self-love is the supreme love, all that stands in opposition to self-love is met with enmity and hostility. Yet God views self-love as idolatry and idolatry is a form of hatred against God.
The Romans 5:10 passage shows us that all men were enemies and so all must be reconciled to God or they will remain enemies, but indeed some are truly reconciled. The doctrine of reconciliation should teach us that only those who are enemies of God need to be reconciled to God, so this great doctrine demands that those who are reconciled actually be at enmity with God prior to reconciliation. If they were not at enmity with God, then there was no need to be reconciled to God.
The Romans 8:7 passage is a very powerful passage in that it points out when a person has his or her mind set on the flesh, that is, the unregenerate nature which is the fleshly nature, that person is hostile to God. The sinful nature which is a selfish nature which is the fleshly nature is by definition a nature that is focused on self and in fact self is the idol. When one looks at it that way, we can see the enmity toward God is over who has the ultimate right over self and over the worship of self. The problem with human beings, however, is that they think of worship as limited to one hour or so on Sunday. But with God, however, man bows in worship at all points of life. Man lives in the worship of self or he lives in the worship of God. People who have a mind that is set on the flesh are people who are in worship of self and so are at enmity with God. When those people see or hear the commands of God against self, they hate it and fight against Him.
The Colossians passage shows us that there were those who were alienated from God and hostile in mind and that entailed the fact that they were engaged in evil deeds. When people are engaged in evil deeds, that shows that they are hostile to God and need to be reconciled to Him. In fact, evil deeds are demonstrative evidence of hostility toward God and His holiness exhibited by the Commandments and Christ Himself. When Jesus walked on this planet He was hated because men were hostile to God. This shows that men love self and hate God.
God Loves... Himself 
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