Proverbs 6:16-19 - Homiletics

Seven hateful things

It is certainly best for us to think most of "whatsoever things are lovely, of good report," etc. but the couleur de rose view of human nature that comes of a fastidious objection to look at the darker shades of character is not only false, but also dangerous, since it tempts us to ignore our own failings and to neglect the duty of rebuking sin and of labouring to better the world. The physician must study pathology. The patient must allow his disease to be examined. We must therefore sometimes set ourselves to the unwelcome task of considering hateful things. Let us look at the general features of the seven abominations.

I. THEY ARE DEFINED IN DETAIL . We are not only told that sin is odious. Particular sins are specified. A general confession of sin may be made without any admission of guilt in regard to one's own special faults. The proud man will confess himself a miserable sinner while he refuses to see the evil of his pride. Therefore we must consider our sins in the concrete. Only thus can we feel true compunction and make practical repentance. Six hateful things are mentioned; then a seventh is added as a sort of after thought, and to suit the requirements of the poetic form of the enigma. It is thus made apparent that the seven is not a definite number intended to exclude all others. Seven is a round number, and the list might easily be lengthened. In fact, we have just seven specimen abominations. Therefore let no man flatter himself because his peculiar failing may happen to be omitted. All transgression of the Law is sin, and is hateful in the sight of God. When particular evils are denounced, remember that they are but specimens of a large and varied and wholly abominable host of sins.

II. THEY ARE DESCRIBED IN REFERENCE TO PARTICULAR ORGANS . A look, a tongue, hands, a heart, feet. All sin is the abuse of some power or faculty. The organ is innocent in itself, but it is prostituted to a base purpose. Every part of our nature is susceptible of this degradation. The more powers we have, the greater is our capacity of evil doing as well as of well doing.

III. THEY ARE APPARENTLY VERY UNEQUAL IN GUILT . The promiscuous collection of bareful things is surprising. It looks as though they were flung together with little consideration. Possibly this is designed, that we may not so much compare respective degrees of sin but hate and eschew all evil, the least sin being hateful to God. Pride, lying, murder, are in close juxtaposition. It is not asserted that the three are equally guilty. But no measure is given for discriminating between them. The casuistry of such measurement is demoralizing. Moreover, the difference is often not so great as we think. The crime that sends a shock of horror through the country and leads us to regard the doer of it as an inhuman monster, may come from no blacker sink of iniquity than that which sends forth a sin wearing a much less tragic hue.

IV. THEY ARE AS A WHOLE CHARACTERIZED BY FEATURES THAT ARE SPECIALLY REPROBATED IN CHRISTIAN ETHICS . The first and the last of the hateful things are the exact opposites of the first and the last of the graces named in the seven Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount. Pride, lying, cruelty, are the opposites of the Christian duties of humility, truthfulness, and charity. The sin of the heart and imagination is condemned as well as that of the hands.

V. THEY ARE ALL CONDEMNED ON ACCOUNT OF THEIR HATEFULNESS IN THE SIGHT OF GOD . Morality is not created by the flat of the Divine will. It is eternal, necessary, immutable. God is holy because he lives according to it. But God's relation to morals adds a new sanction. Wickedness then becomes sin. The hatefulness of sin in God's sight should be to us its greatest condemnation, not only because God will punish it, but because it separates us from the love of God.