God's Hate vs. Love

God’s Hate

·         The very first thing to keep in mind that we cannot apply a human concept of hate vs. love to God’s hate vs. love.

o   Humans associate hate with a multitude of negative emotions, none of which can be readily applied to God.

§  Anger, rage, etc.

o   God’s hate is better understood in that He hates all that which causes humans to reject God.

§  i.e. sin

§  Keep in mind that God absolutely “hates” sin and He will judge those who are not forgiven.

Below is a list of scripture that will help shed more light on this subject (this list is not exhaustive, but sets the tone…

·         Prov. 6:16-19

o   “The Lord hates six things; in fact, seven are detestable to him: arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that plots wicked schemes, feet eager to run to evil, a lying witness who gives false testimony, and one who stirs up trouble among brothers.”

§  If you look carefully at this list, you see that God hates sin in a very specific manner. But keep in mind, sin by itself never happens, Sin only occurs when a human does something.

·         Psalm 5:5-6

o   The boastful cannot stand in your sight; you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who tell lies; the Lord abhors violent and treacherous people.

·         Psalm 11:5

o   The Lord examines the righteous, but he hates the wicked and those who love violence.

·         Psalm 31:6

o   I hate those who are devoted to worthless idols

·         Psalm 139:21-22

o   Lord, don’t I hate those who hate you, and detest those who rebel against you?  I hate them with extreme hatred; I consider them my enemies.

§  Notice that we are called to likewise “hate” (in a God type hate) those who hate God and we are to treat them as enemies.

·         Mal. 1:2-3

o   I have loved you,” says the Lord. Yet you ask, “How have you loved us?” “Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?” This is the Lord’s declaration. “Even so, I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau. I turned his mountains into a wasteland and gave his inheritance to the desert jackals.”

·         There are many other scriptures which show the same thing, that God does indeed “hate” some people (keep in mind that hate is related to those people’s own actions.

BUT We also must look at the flipside regarding God loving all people which scripture is likewise clear…

God is love

·         1 John 4:7-10

o   Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.  Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

·         1 John 4:16-21

o   God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.

§  Love originates from God and God loves all of us

So, where does this leave us? In one instance we are told that God loves us but in the next it says that God hates us, so which is it? The answer is both! God loves us and desires the best for us, but due to our sin, and the fact that God must hate sin, it forces God to assume a role that He does not prefer, to hate us, because we are unconfessed sinners. But, God never wants to leave anybody in the hate category, hence why He sent Jesus to pay the price to satisfy God’s hate.

By following this path, we clearly see that God loves us, but our sin forces Him to hate us, to which God initiated the path so that God can forgive us (through Jesus) so that God can once again love us.