If hate is bad, then how can God hate sin, but not the sinner?

-- Jacob R. (jacobrainey@hotmail.com), February 01, 2004

Answers

Hatred is not intrinsically "bad". The object of hatred is what renders it good or bad. Hatred of that which is good is bad. Hatred of evil is good. God hates evil because it harms the ones He loves. But He does not hate the persons who commit evil acts, for they are His children, created in His own image and likeness. Usually when we speak of hatred, we are speaking of hatred of another person, and that is always bad.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), February 01, 2004.

So , speaking of I hate hitler is bad ?? __ After all what that moron has done for/with this world ??

Salut & Cheers of a NON BELIEVER:

-- Laurent LUG (.@...), February 01, 2004.

No Laurent,

Its understandable to feel hatred for Hitler. It is difficult if not impossible to separate the man from his hideous deeds. He "became" what he did. So we hate him.

-- Jim Furst (furst@flash.net), February 01, 2004.

Yes, it is indeed difficult if not impossible for us to love as God loves, given our fallen human nature. And yet we know that God loves Hitler as much as He loves His own mother. God cannot love one person more than another, or He would have to love some people imperfectly, and imperfect love is incompatible with God's perfect nature. Loving perfectly necessarily means loving every individual equally. "Perfect" is an absolute. There are not different degrees of "perfect". The reason we can love some people more than we love others is that we are not capable of perfect love, and there are many different degrees of imperfection. But God loves only perfectly, and therefore equally.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), February 01, 2004.

Christ told us to love out enemies. As Christians we're not allowed to hate anyone. We can hate their evil acts, but not the person themself.

As the Church teaches, we are to hate the sin, whilst loving the sinner.

If we don't forgive the trespasses of others then we cannot expect to be forgiven of our own trespasses. Christ himself taught us this.

If one of my children were to do something wrong, I would chastise them for it, I may also punish them for it. However, I wouldn't stop loving them because I love them unconditionally. I don't like the thing that they've done, but I love them nonetheless. So it is with God our Father. He loves us unconditionally, but sometimes doesn't like the things we do.

God bless

Sara

-- Sara (sara_catholic_forum@yahoo.co.uk), February 01, 2004.

If hate is bad, then how can God hate sin, but not the sinner?

I don't think God hates sin. God loves all of us, even though we sin. From all that I have read in scripture, God is disappointed when we sin, but I haven't seen that He hates sin. Maybe I missed something.

I have found hatred to be a very self destrictive vice that often leads to dispair.

Yours in Christ,


-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45@hotmail.com), February 01, 2004.

Bill said: I don't think God hates sin

I disagree. What about Malachi 2:16, where God says that He hates divorce (ie. a sin)?

I believe that God does not hate people, but this verse has always bothered me: Romans 9:13, in which God says that He loved Jacob but hated Esau. What do you make of this?

God bless,

-- Emily (jesusfollower7@yahoo.com), February 01, 2004.

Emily, Did you read the footnote, I think it answers your question.

-bill

-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45@hotmail.com), February 01, 2004.

Bill, yes I read the footnote. I says that "hate" is actually in a relative sense, in that God loved Jacob more than Esau. Ok, but that still doesn't answer my question. Why then did God love Jacob more? Perhaps "love" is in the sense of making him father of Israel?

God bless,

-- Emily (jesusfollower7@yahoo.com), February 01, 2004.

Emily,
It is within the Jewish tradition to believe that certain people are 'blessed by God' or 'favored by God'. That good things befall these people. It isn't a hate though to go back to the origional question.

-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45@hotmail.com), February 01, 2004.

But how can God 'hate.' Is not hate intrinsically wrong or evil. How can God have an emotion that is bad?

-- Jacob R. (jacobrainey@hotmail.com), February 01, 2004.

That question recycles us back to the top of the thread. It was addressed in the first response.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), February 01, 2004.

What do the verses in the psalms mean then when God says the ONE who sins "His Soul Hates" or the verses in the new Testament which speak of God "Hating" not just sin, but sinners.

I know He loves us. Even as sinners, but what are those verses all about? Is it He (in one sense) hates us (but in a just hate) because we are in rebelion against Him, and (in another sense) loves us because were His creation and wants us to be with Him in His glory?

-- William (Ducin25@aol.com), February 02, 2004.

William, Do you know of any verses specifically? I'm not sure, but perhaps it's "hate" in the sense of condemnation, ie. sending someone to hell because He hates their sin. In other words, maybe "hate" is a bad translation of what should say "condemns to hell" (eg. for mortal sins).

God bless,

-- Emily (jesusfollower7@yahoo.com), February 02, 2004.

It is significant that virtually all such passages are in the Old Testament. God as the Old Testament writers viewed Him (with some exceptions, like the Psalms) was a God of wrath. Indeed, the writers ascribed to God many negative human traits like jealousy, vengeance, anger, hatred, retribution, etc. This was their attempt to describing a God they really knew little about, in the only way they could describe Him - in terms of their own human experience and emotions, which is of course a very inadequate means of describing God. So we have to read their descriptions in context, trying to understand just what the writers were trying to convey, and not get too hung up on the specific terms they may have used in writing such descriptions.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), February 02, 2004.