What Jesus Loves & Hates
Sometimes, knowing what a person dislikes or, even better, what they really hate can be helpful. It is a part of knowing and understanding them. This is true when it comes to knowing Jesus.
Most can easily talk about what Jesus loves, but it seems as if the knowledge of what He hates is missing.
For some, the idea of Jesus hating is not in their wheelhouse at all. They cannot bring themselves to think there could be anything He would hate. But there is something He hates.
Psalm 45:7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions.
Hebrews 1:9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions.”
Jesus does not like it when there is a disregard for righteousness. Jesus loves righteousness. When a disregard for righteousness leads to living contrary to it because of holding the truth of righteousness in contempt, Jesus hates that. That is wickedness or lawlessness. He knows the theft that it is in someone’s life. It suggests that God is not good in all He is when someone holds righteousness in contempt and embraces wickedness. Therefore, it is something He hates.
But we should notice something else in this passage. Because of this attitude in Jesus, we are told God anointed Him with the oil of gladness more than His companions.
An attitude of loving righteousness and hating wickedness can release an anointing with the oil of gladness. Jesus loved righteousness and knew He was righteous by the nature of the relationship He enjoyed with the Father. Righteousness doesn’t exist without the concept of being right with a purpose. That purpose being in relationship with God.
Unrighteousness does not experience a relationship with God. To have a relationship with God, one must be righteous. It stands to reason, therefore, that anyone desiring a relationship with God would love righteousness.
It is not weird or odd to hate whatever it is that opposes what you love. That’s why when I am being conformed to His image, I hate wickedness all the more, just as He did and still does, and my love for righteousness grows just as He loved righteousness. The fruit of this reality of transformation comes with an anointing with the oil of gladness.
I have found that whenever I have ever operated outside the confines of the righteousness He has made to be in Himself, my gladness suffers a blow. But when I live submitted to the righteousness He has made me, I experience great gladness. It is me being what I was created to be in Him, and the anointing of the oil of gladness is a beautiful thing to experience in Him.
