Should Christians Hate Anything?
by Jim Deyling
This probably isn’t going to be the most popular post.
But it’s important that as Christians we have a proper understanding of who God is and what the Bible actually teaches instead of merely accepting spiritual-sounding platitudes from the culture around us. The question is, “Should Christians hate anything?” and the answer is, “Yes.”
There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers.
- Proverbs 6:16-19
For I, the Lord, love justice, I hate robbery in the burnt offering.
- Isaiah 61:8
“For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel.
- Malachi 2:16
Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
- Jesus, in Revelation 2:6
The Passion in Following Jesus
If you love something, you will hate what threatens or destroys it. Passionless tolerance is a Buddhist doctrine – not a biblical one. Christianity is passionate and fierce.
Part of being created in the image of God is that we are emotional beings. No emotion is inherently bad, not even hate. It becomes bad when it is misdirected toward self-serving or unjust aims.
Is God love? Yes, He is. It is important to remember, however, that God is bigger than we can possibly imagine, and we have to accept what He says about Himself if we want to understand Him. Making up a conception of God based upon our own rationales is a recipe for failure. God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son into it. Jesus sat and ate with tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners. He died for us, offering us forgiveness of sins and life eternal if we only repent and come to Him, following Him. He also will ultimately judge the world. Every wrong will be righted. His wrath is stored up for the Day of Judgment.
So where does that leave us? How are we to learn from His example?
A lot of criticism has been lobbed at the phrase “Love the sinner, hate the sin,” but isn’t that what we usually see in the Bible?
For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
- Titus 3:3-7
Christians Are Supposed to Hate Some Things
We are called to be imitators of God (1 Cor. 11:1; Eph. 5:1; 1 Thes. 1:6), and as we’ve already seen, there are things that God hates. We are also commanded to hate certain things:
Hate evil, you who love the Lord.
- Psalm 97:10
Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the gate!
- Amos 5:15
Some activities are not just alternative lifestyles or “different strokes,” they are evil. And while we can and must have compassion on those lost in these activities, we are supposed to hate the evil.
No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
- Luke 16:13
After all, even if you say you love everyone and everything, it isn’t true. You are going to hate something, so shouldn’t it be what God hates?
Love God, love people, and hate what God hates. Indifference is not a Christian virtue.
