Can Love Hate?

1 John 4:7–16 NKJV

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

God is love.

God also hates

This is one of the most controversial and misunderstood aspects of the nature of God’s love.

Unfortunately, misunderstanding God’s righteous nature has distorted our understanding of God’s love.

While it is true that God loves everyone and sent Jesus, His only begotten Son, to save them from their sin, it is equally true that God hates what is contrary to His love.

Humans are unable to love with perfect love or hate with perfect hatred.

God can both love and hate perfectly, because He is God.

God can hate without evil intent. He can hate the sinner in a completely righteous way and, yet, lovingly show mercy and forgive the sinner the moment they repent and believe (Malachi 1:3; Revelation 2:6; 2 Peter 3:9).

Things God hates

Idolatry (Deuteronomy 12:31; 16:22)

Child sacrifice and sexual perversion (Leviticus 20:1-23)

All workers of iniquity (Psalm 5:5)

The wicked and those who love violence (Psalm 11:5)

Six things the LORD hates, seven being an abomination (Proverbs 6:16-19).

Proverbs 6:16–19 NKJV

These six things the Lord hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that are swift in running to evil, A false witness who speaks lies, And one who sows discord among brethren.

Religious performance (Isaiah 1:14)

Robbery for burnt offering (Isaiah 61:8)

Burning incense to other gods (Jeremiah 44:4)

Evil deeds (Hosea 9:15)

Your feast days (Amos 5:21)

Thinking evil toward your neighbor and a false oath (Zechariah 8:17)

The nation of Esau (Malachi 1:3; Romans 9:13)

Divorce (Malachi 2:16)

The deeds of the Nicolaitans (Revelation 2:6)

The doctrine of the Nicolaitans (Revelation 2:15)

Believers are to hate what God hates

Psalm 97:10 NKJV

You who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.

Proverbs 8:13 NKJV

The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverse mouth I hate.

God’s people are to hate those who hate the LORD (Psalm 139:19-22).

They are to hate evil and every false way (Psalm 97:10; 119:128, 163; Proverbs 8:13; Isaiah 61:8).

They are to hate evil and to love good (Amos 5:15).

They are to abhor what is evil and cling to what is good (Romans 12:9).

A “love” that justifies “vile” (“dishonorable”) “passions” and “lusts” is false, twisted, sinful, and perverse (Romans 1:26-27). Such evil passions are to be resisted rather than embraced.

Sinful passions may war within our flesh, but they are not to define us or redefine love.

Those who seek to fulfill perverse lusts and sinful passions by redefining “love” to justify what God hates are world pleasers rather than God pleasers.

Those who love the world make themselves enemies of God (James 4:4).

God is merciful

Colossians 1:21 NKJV

And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled

Ephesians 2:1–9 NKJV

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Even before salvation, the sinner is loved by God (Romans 5:8).

God loves the people of the world (John 3:16).

God spared Nineveh, the wicked city, through the preaching of Jonah (Jonah 3).

God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:32).

God does not desire any to perish (2 Peter 3:9).

Upon repentance and faith in Christ, all enmity is dissolved, all sin is removed, and all things are made new (see 2 Corinthians 5:17).

Conclusion

God is love.

God hates what is contrary to His nature, creation order, creation design, creation purpose, and moral standard.

God hates what targets and destroys the objects of His love.

God is rich in mercy.

We must love what God loves and hate what God hates.

We must seek to bring the gospel to those who are children of wrath.

Response to the Word