Does God Hate Certain Persons? Is there Any Truth to “Love the Sinner, but Hate the Sin?”

In an article from July 30, 2013 (I know, it’s old… https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/god-loves-the-sinner-but-hates-the-sin), John Piper teaches that God hates certain people. The problem with this is that there are inconsistencies in the mind of the person (usually a Calvinist) who believes this, and even Piper in the article recognizes the inconsistency but tries to pass it off as a paradox. “He hates — now here is the paradox — and he loves at the same time.”[1] The problem is that it is not a paradox, but simply a contradiction.

Let’s look at some different texts from where the belief that God hates certain persons likely came…

Psalm 5

Give ear to my words, O Lord;

consider my groaning.

2 Give attention to the sound of my cry,

my King and my God,

for to you do I pray.

3 O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;

in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you[a] and watch.

4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;

evil may not dwell with you.

5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;

you hate all evildoers.

6 You destroy those who speak lies;

the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

7 But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,

will enter your house.

I will bow down toward your holy temple

in the fear of you.

8 Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness

because of my enemies;

make your way straight before me.

9 For there is no truth in their mouth;

their inmost self is destruction;

their throat is an open grave;

they flatter with their tongue.

10 Make them bear their guilt, O God;

let them fall by their own counsels;

because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,

for they have rebelled against you.

11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;

let them ever sing for joy,

and spread your protection over them,

that those who love your name may exult in you.

12 For you bless the righteous, O Lord;

you cover him with favor as with a shield.

Another text often used is found in Hosea, 9:15…

Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;

there I began to hate them.

Because of the wickedness of their deeds

I will drive them out of my house.

I will love them no more;

all their princes are rebels.

There are many other verses and passages with this type of language. But concluding that this is what it means, clearly creates a problem in the person who believes that God is love, as 1 John 4:8 describes. It is also problematic through the lenses of other biblical passages. For instance, Matthew 5:43-48:

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?

If someone says that the text means that God hates certain persons, then he has another problem to deal with, which is that God desires that none should perish: 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” Just because the text says something does not mean that's what it means. Proper Hermeneutics is a requirement.

The real issue with the conclusion of the article mentioned above, that there are paradoxes as such in the Bible, is that these are not paradoxes, but the human authors of the Bible frequently used hyperbole.[2]Jesus Himself was a frequenter of hyperbole. For instance, in Mark 9:42-48 we find a prime example of Jesus’ use of hyperbole:

Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’

Should we cut off our hands and feet, and gouge out our eyes if they cause us to sin? Absolutely not! This is not what Jesus was teaching. If it were the case that it were not hyperbolic, then by not literally cutting off our hands and feet and gouging out our eyes, we would find ourselves in an endless cycle of sin. If our hands were causing us to sin by doing something and we didn’t use our hands to cut off our hands, then what? We are sinning again by not obeying the command to cut off our hands. This is absurd. He was teaching that we should do everything we can to stop sinning and grow closer to God. Jesus was exaggerating in order to drive the point deeper into the heart of His hearers. That God hates sinners is a hyperbole as well.

“Love the sinner but hate the sin” is absolutely a good thing to believe today, simply because this is what God does. He loves the sinner and hates the sin. Read what Jesus says again:

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?

Love your enemies? Wait… what? I thought God hated certain people? No, He makes His sun rise on the evil and the good, and send rain on the just and the unjust. Again, that God hates sinners is hyperbolic.

Perhaps this brings a person to conclude that if God loves everyone, then it may lead to universalism. This is a whole other issue obviously, but just because God loves everyone does not mean that everyone goes to heaven. It does not mean that God will bring people to His Kingdom against their own will. That would be unloving! In John 14:6, Jesus says that “I am the way, the truth, and the life; No one comes to the Father, but through me.” So, if a person does not have Jesus (“He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life” 1 John 5:12), then he will not enter into the Kingdom of God. Romans 10:9 agrees: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, then you will be saved.” There are no conditions for God's love (God's love is unconditional), but there are conditions on where one spends eternity (God's salvation is conditional).

To be consistent in the worldview of Calvinism, it seems then, that one must believe that God indeed hates certain persons, but the problem is that this creates inconsistencies in his thinking elsewhere, such as I have mentioned above (i. e. in considering the other texts contained the Bible). The real issue with inconsistencies, logically speaking, is that when there are inconsistencies in one’s beliefs, this means that there is something in those beliefs that is not true. In other words, something believed to be true is actually false because the logic used for one belief is not the same when it comes to another belief. Consistency is a high goal that we should all strive for. Where do you have inconsistencies in your beliefs?

[1] John Piper. https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/god-loves-the-sinner-but-hates-the-sin.

[2] NOUN: hyperbole; plural noun: hyperboles; exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

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