Today we're going to talk about hate. Had someone tell me the other day that God hates sinners. That was kind of hard for me to take because I thought God loved everyone. You know that he hates the sin but loves the sinner, but that's not what this person made me feel that she was saying, that he hates sinners. Well, first let's talk about what hate is.
Speaker 1:Hate is to express or feel extreme enmity or active hostility. I want to give you an example of hate, something I'm not proud of and if you've listed my other podcast about the relationship I had with family, this kind of goes back with that. Had a family member that had hurt me very badly and over the years I learned to hate them. I know we say, oh, I hate that or I hate this. No, I hated with the most extreme hate anyone could fill. I went as far to tell someone that if he was laying on the side of the road on fire I wouldn't spit on him to put him out. That's how little I cared. And when I said that, god came down on me like you would not believe and it took me a year or more to get past that hate. Hate is such a strong feeling and to think that God would hate sinners. It just didn't sit with me. John 3, 16,. For God so loved the world, so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son. He loved the world. So where does that hate come in? Does God feel that way about sinners? Does he hate him so much that he'll do nothing? Well, the Bible does say it rains on the righteous and the unrighteous the same, but does he hate sinners? John 9 31 says Now we know that God does not hear sinners. But if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, he will hear him. So he listens to the prayers of a sinner if it's for repentance, but does that mean he hates them? Do you think the scripture one of the scriptures the person that I was talking to was talking about is Psalms 11 5, where it says the Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence his soul hates. Do you think God hates the way I hate it? Do you think that's the way that God feels about people who are sinners? I don't know.
Speaker 1:If you go back and you look in the Old Testament and the New Testament, it talks that God loves everyone. In many places he rescued the wicked city of Nineveh with Jonah, and Jesus died for the sins of the world, all of us, everyone. Could you send your son to die for people you hated? Now, god isn't happy with people who rejects him, but he loves the world. It says so for God, so love the world. In fact, 2 Peter 3 9 says the Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some count slackness, but is long suffering towards us, not willing that he should perish, but all should come to repentance. So he wants us all to repent. He sends the Holy Spirit to everyone. That's part of him, and the Holy Spirit draws these people. It is their own sinful nature that keeps them from turning to him, but that's the thing that you have to remember. Because of man's sinful nature, god can't be in a relationship with sin. He's holy and righteous. So does he hate the sinner or does he hate what sin has made the sinner?
Speaker 1:If you looked at the picture that I put on front of my podcast, that kind of goes with what I'm going to talk about right now. If you had a child and the child got addicted to drugs and did some horrible things, would you hate that child or would you hate what the drugs had made him become? Does God hate the sin that has made the person the way they are? Would you give up on that child? Would you not cry to make him see the light, get off the drugs, to become the person he is supposed to become? That's what God does. You've got to remember God can see our path if we walk with him, and when we're born he can see what we can become. He gives us a free will. We can make the decision to accept him or to reject him, and if we accept him, then he knows what we're going to become, what lane we're going to go down. If we reject him, he can still see what that person could have been had he accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. But that person has given himself over to darkness. But are we to be like Christ? Are we to be like God? Are we supposed to listen to what he says and what the Bible says? Well, the Bible says he hates sinners. Are we supposed to hate sinners? It says 1 John 2, 9-11,. He who is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness. Until now, he who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for him stumbling. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he's going because darkness has blinded his eyes. We're not supposed to hate, but you want to tell me that God says it's okay for him to hate the person.
Speaker 1:I really think that when the Bible speaks of God hating something, the object of his hatred is the sin and wickedness inside the person. Just like if you had a child on drugs. The things you hate about it is what the drugs, the things that's inside him, have done to that person, how it has turned him into a person you don't know, but yet you can see that child. You can see that loving, friendly child that was growing up to be such a good child before he got into the drugs. You could see what was in this child's future. You could see what could be open to him. Can you hate him when you know what he's capable of and that the drugs have drawn him away from that?
Speaker 1:I have people in my family who were beautiful, beautiful, beautiful people who got on drugs and I love those people with all my heart that I hate what they are. I hate how they've hurt their families, how they hurt their selves, how they've hurt their own children, and I could see what life could be for them if they would walk away from that drug, from that evil that they've pulled themselves into. But I don't hate the person because we are supposed to love, but there are things that God hates. In fact, there's seven things that God hates. Proverbs 6-12-19 says these six things the Lord hates, yes, and 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 the brethren. So there are things God hated and if you listen to that list, there are things and it says these six things God hates, and some of those seem to be people.
Speaker 1:But then let's look a lying tongue. It's not the person, it's the tongue, it's the person allowing evil to become so much part of them that the evil controls their tongue. Hands that shed innocent blood. Then there's a heart that devises wicked plants, feet that are swift to running to evil. A false witness that's a person, someone who spreads lies. That's kind of funny. When you look at the first, one's a lying tongue and then a false witness who speaks lies. There is a difference in those two. We'll go into that at some other podcast.
Speaker 1:One who sews discord among the brother, and that's a person. But it is the wickedness in them that he hates. It's like it's the drugs in your child that is addicted to them that you hate. You hate what he's become, but you love that child that you held in your arms. How much does God love each person that's born that he knew before they were in the womb that he has such great plans for. If only they turn from their wicked ways and turn to Jesus Christ. He loved those children before they were born. He loved you before you were born. As the scripture says, he is not willing that any should perish. All should come to repentance. Where I look at hate, the way I felt about the family member I didn't care if he died went to hell. God is not willing that any should perish.
Speaker 1:I think our hate and God's hate is a little different. I read an article where it says that because God is the being that he is, that that hate is more like he favors the righteous and he does not favor the wicked, and so it's more about what he does. He does nothing for the wicked, but he can do everything for us. So does God hate sinners? I think God hates what evil has made them become. I think he loves the person that he knows they could be when they turn to Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Is that an answer? I don't know. You guys decide if God loves or hates everyone, or does he hate sinners. But I think that when you really think about it, god is righteous, god is holy. I don't see how someone who is righteous and holy could hate the way we hate. What is God's hate? I don't know. And when it says that he hates a sinner because they love violence, maybe it means just that. If this is an answer that I'm not going to give you, this is an answer that you have to decide for yourselves, but I hope I've given you enough information to know that God loves you and he wants you all to come to repentance. He wants us to love others. He wants us to lead others to Christ. That's what our job is. These people that this person said that he hates are the people he wants us to reach. It doesn't sound like hate to me. God loves you.