Wednesday, September 17, 2025
“We know how much
God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who
live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” (1 John 4:16, new Living Translation)
There are some interesting
synonyms for hatred. They all sound ominous and foreboding. Abhorrence. Detestation.
Loathing. Repugnance. Disgust. One might think – should think? - that hatred
would be best left alone altogether, if we can manage. It is not a healthy part of
our well-being.
But hatred is becoming a raison-d’etre
in our society these days. The Right hate the Left. White folk hate the immigrant.
The Jew hates the Palestinian. The Russian
hates the Ukrainian. And vice-versa. Perhaps,
there is always the danger of overstating it all. But the mood of our culture is becoming one
of severe intolerance and belligerence towards anyone who doesn’t think, act, believe
like they do. As we have seen recently, it can lead to terrible violence.
I have always believed that the Church,
as followers of Jesus Christ, needs to be counter-cultural. Therefore, we need
to speaking up against this hateful trend. But there is growing evidence that some
Christians are contributing to it instead. One of their popular claims is that “God
hates ______.” Fill in the blank with whatever these Christians purport to hate
like LGBTQ, pro-choice, liberalism, science, vaccinations, etc. etc. Their lists are long. They might, but rarely
do these days, say they hate the sin and not the sinner. But their angry rhetoric belies that. Basically,
it would seem that if you don’t believe exactly what they do, you may well end up on their hate list
because God hates you, too.
Never mind the presumptuous rhetoric
of speaking on behalf of God about what he may or may not hate, I was curious
about what the scriptures say on the subject. Some will argue that in the Old Testament,
God can be cantankerous, angry and punitive. Psalm 5 says that God "hates
all who do evil.” Well, that makes sense. God hates sin, of course. We are
to do the same, “You who love the Lord, hate evil!” (Psalm 97:10) He
hates “those who love violence.” (Psalm 11:5) In Psalm 45, there is a counterpoint
to his hatred of evil, “You love justice and hate evil.” (Psalm 45:7) If anything, in the Psalms, at
least, God deals severely with those who use hatred as a form of behaviour against
him or others. “Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him; they would be doomed
forever.” (Psalm 81:5) There is more. “For I, the Lord,
love justice. I hate robbery and
wrongdoing.” (Isaiah 61:8) And the message is clear in Jeremiah: “Don’t
do these horrible things that I hate so much.” (Jeremiah 44:4)
There is also overwhelming
biblical evidence that God is far more that any hatred of evil and sin. Hate
does not define God’s whole being by any
stretch of the imagination. If we get stuck on what we think God may hate, we
do God a great disservice. “The Lord is slow to anger and filled with
unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion.” (Numbers 14:18)
More than anything, Jesus has allowed
us to see God in a whole new Light. The Word made flesh embodies the Love of
God. Jesus surpasses the need to judge,
hate, condemn, vilify, denounce or express his disgust about the behaviour of
the people around him. Oh, he can be testy and critical at times, (ironically, mostly
against the religious pomposity of the religious leaders of his time) but his compassion, grace, tolerance,
brings people into the amazing, unconditional Love of God without little fear
of judgment and punishment (although again, Jesus can preach fire and brimstone
to the self-righteous and pompous.) “For this is how God loved the world: He
gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish
but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world,
but to save the world through him.” (John 3: 16 -17) That says to me that
God is a Lover, not a hater.
For sure, that Is the message of
John’s letter. God is love. This is God’s prime mode of being. I could fill another page with the things that
Jesus said we shouldn’t or should do which seems to have gone over the heads of
the self-righteous haters in our world. Don’t judge. Love your enemies. Love one another. Go the extra mile. Look
after the homeless, the hungry, then poor. But then again, I guess I end up sounding
judgmental myself. But I also think
somebody needs to speak up for and uphold this wondrous, uniquely loving God we
have. Not that he needs me to, but God is getting some very bad press these
days. I may be a voice crying the wilderness, but God is Love and I would like
the world to experience that Love in all its glory.
Blessings!
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