ROMANS 1:30

“slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,”

I have known some people who truly hated God. They blamed Him for every bad thing that happened to them. They couldn’t love a God “that allowed that sort of thing.” The fact of the matter is, we were all haters of God until we came to salvation. Living lives opposed to His law makes us haters, according to Scripture. I could have taken any one of the words mentioned in today’s verse, but this one really explains them all.

Paul says these individuals he has been discussing for the past several verses were indeed “haters of God.” The word for “haters” is theostygḗs and is used only here in Romans 1:30. HELPS Word studies says it is “derived from theós, ‘God’ and stygeō, ‘abhor’ – properly, to abhor God (His will). This rare term refers to people who totally turn against the Lord.” A person who fits this category is capable of any of the words mentioned in verse 29 and 30.

APPLICATION

In John 3:20 Jesus says this about these haters of God. “‘For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed.’” Darkness is used to try to hide our behaviors. I can name all kinds of sin that are done in the cloak of darkness. But God sees through the darkness, does He not?

Jesus tells us in John 7:7, “‘The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify about it, that its deeds are evil.’” When we expose the deeds done in the darkness, the evil will come against us with fangs bared and snarling. Our ministry has seen that all over the world as we have taught men how to come out of the darkness and live in the light. The haters of God do not want this. They want to keep us enslaved to our sins and in their camp as haters of God.

In one more verse from John, Jesus warns us in John 15:18 that, “‘If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.’” Don’t be surprised if you get called names and attacked for living a godly life. Don’t be shocked at the behaviors of others, even some in the church who are living according to God’s will, when you confront their sin. We have a responsibility though to share the truth and let God do the convicting. Their hatred of Him does not surprise Him, nor does it lessen His love for them. We should respond likewise.

Father, allow me to be Your vessel in this ongoing battle against those who hate You.

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