While the Bible acknowledges that anger can sometimes be righteous—specifically when its target is evil and injustice—hatred is generally forbidden. Jesus calls his people to do good to their enemies and love those who hate them.

However, this creates a tension: sometimes God himself is described as hating those who are opposed to him. How can hatred be wrong if God himself hates?

Three Ways to Understand Divine Hate

1. The Perspective of Judgment: One way to answer this is to understand human limitation. We are unable to pass final judgment on each other because we don’t know if someone’s evil is a temporary state that will be repented of, or if it is “damnably permanent.” God, however, knows those who are reprobate and will never stop opposing him. These he hates.


2. The Capacity for Complexity: Another possibility is to acknowledge the difference in capacity. While we humans struggle to love and hate the same person at the same time, God, in his infinite nature, is able to hate sin while simultaneously loving his creatures.


3. The Semantic Range: The third, and possibly most accurate, approach is to recognize the semantic range of biblical words for “hate.” In both the Old and New Testaments, hatred can mean to emotionally despise, but it can also mean “to be chosen over.”

When we say “God hates sin,” it falls into the category of emotional or moral distaste. However, when the Bible says, “Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated,” it falls into the second category. In that context, there is no sense of emotional malice toward Esau; rather, it is a way of stating that God chose Jacob and his descendants over Esau to be his covenant people.

Hosts:

Aaron Mueller

Chuck Rathert