What does God hate?
At first glance, it might seem a contradiction that a God who is love can also hate. However, that’s exactly what the Bible says is true: God is love (1 John 4:8), and God hates (Hosea 9:15).
God’s nature is love—He always does what is best for others—and He hates what is contrary to His nature—He hates what is opposite of love.
No one should be surprised to learn that God does, in fact, hate some things. While He created us with the capacity to both love and hate, and we acknowledge that hatred is sometimes justified—we naturally hate things that destroy what we love. This is all part of our being created in the image of God. The fact that we are all contaminated with sin means that our love and hatred are sometimes misplaced, but the existence of the sin nature does not negate our God-given ability to love and hate. So, it is no contradiction for a human being to be able to love and hate at the same time, and neither is it a contradiction for God to be able to love and hate at the same time.
When the Bible does speak of God’s hatred, the object of His hatred is always sin and wickedness. Among the things God hates are idolatry (Deuteronomy 12:31; 16:22), child sacrifice, sexual perversion (Leviticus 20:1–23), and those who do evil (Psalm 5:4–6; 11:5). Proverbs 6:16–19 lists seven things the Lord hates: pride, lying, murder, evil plots, those who love evil, false witnesses, and troublemakers. Notice that this passage does not include just things that God hates; it includes people as well. The reason is simple: sin cannot be separated from the sinner except by the forgiveness available in Christ alone. God hates lying, yes, but lying always involves a person—a liar—who chooses to lie. God cannot judge the lie without also judging the liar.
We cannot love with a perfect love, nor can we hate with a perfect hatred. But God can both love and hate perfectly, because He is God. God can hate without sinful intent. He can hate the sinner in a perfectly holy way and still lovingly forgive the sinner at the moment of repentance and faith.
In His love for all, God has sent His Son to be the Savior. The wicked, who are still unforgiven, God hates “for their many sins, for they have rebelled” (Psalm 5:10). But—and this is important to understand—God desires that the wicked repent of their sin and find refuge in Christ. At the moment of saving faith, the wicked sinner is removed from the kingdom of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of love (see Colossians 1:13). All enmity is dissolved, all sin is removed, and all things are made new.
As believers, we should hate sin as does God. We are “sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness” (1 Thessalonians 5:5). We must recognize that God has set us apart; we are “a holy nation, a people belonging to God” (1 Peter 2:9). We cannot become holy on our own, but God gives us His Holy Spirit to sanctify us (2 Thessalonians 2:13). We have His promise that He will help us in our struggle against sin (1 Corinthians 1:8).
We hate sin because it separates us from God. We hate it because it lessens our love and dulls our conscience, because it binds us and blinds us. We hate it because it grieves the Spirit of God (Ephesians 4:30). Our prayer to the Holy One is “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
- ALAN MURPHY
