Do You Care About What God Cares About? (Proverbs 13:5)
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Proverbs 13:5
The righteous hates falsehood,
but the wicked brings shame and disgrace.
Sometimes it’s the simplest verses that unsettle us the most.
This proverb isn’t flashy or poetic. It’s not especially awe-inspiring. But it brings us face-to-face with a very basic question:
Do I love what God loves? And do I hate what He hates?
That might sound strong, even uncomfortable. Hate is a loaded word in our culture. And yet Scripture doesn’t shy away from it – not when it comes to falsehood.
“The righteous hate what is false…”
But why?
Because falsehood isn’t just breaking a rule. It’s breaking relationship. Lies erode trust. They sabotage intimacy. They fracture families, poison communities, and twist justice.
We live in a world where spin is normal – where lying is often rewarded, and telling the truth can feel like a liability. It’s easy, even for Christians, to become numb to it. We start to shrug. “It is what it is.”
I was at a wedding a few weeks ago and spoke with a friend who works in an ER. She told me she’s seen so much pain – so many tragic cases – that she’s begun to feel emotionally numb. She laughed and said that when colleagues return from vacation with fresh compassion, they’ll lose it within days.
That’s what falsehood does to us too. We see so much dishonesty – in politics, in business, online – that we stop reacting. We stop caring. We stop believing things can be different.
But this Proverb is calling us back. It's saying:
Don’t let your heart grow callous to what corrupts God’s world. Don’t settle. Don’t adapt to decay.
And not because we want to be moral crusaders. No. But because God is truth – and truth is what makes love possible. The more we grow in love for Him, the more we’ll ache for integrity in ourselves and in our world.
And that’s why the Christian doesn't hate falsehood with contempt, but with compassion – because it gets in the way of everything we long for: trust, justice, peace, and reconciliation.
Jesus Himself was “full of grace and truth.” He never lied. Never manipulated. And yet He never used truth to crush people. He used it to heal. And on the cross, He bore the full weight of our falsehood – not just to forgive us, but to remake us.
So maybe the better question today isn’t, “Do I hate lies?” but this:
Am I letting my heart grow numb to what breaks God’s heart?
Am I still sensitive to what’s false – in the world, and in me?
Am I growing more like Jesus, full of grace and truth?
Let’s bring those questions to God today – not in fear, but in hope. Because He doesn’t just expose falsehood. He replaces it with truth that sets us free.
