The Hatred of God.
(For God so Loved the World)
Introduction:
A thesis, published originally by the Reform Theological Seminary. Introduction by G. Johanson. A topical lesson study taught at the Deltona Alliance Church Young Adult/ College Dept. at our home, 2010, as I observed the Bible being increasingly referred to as a “Hate Book”. Wishing to equip our students with a Biblical perspective, meaning and use of the word “hate”, I produced this study with the help of a pastor and former graduate student at RTS. Thanks, Steve. Needless to say, the theology taught comes entirely from a Reform perspective. Inerrancy of Scripture, Sovereignty of God, Total depravity of man, TULIP, and all.....
In today’s society, the word
“hatred” gets a lot of exposure. We are
told not to ‘hate’, that to ‘hate’ is evil, we have ‘Hate Crimes’, where a
crime is judged, based not only for the act itself, but for the thoughts and
motivations that engendered the act, or crime.
Whenever someone is seen to disagree with whatever the current society
holds near and dear, it is called “hate”.
Often, simple discriminatory judgment calls are labeled “hatred”. If a Christian verbally expresses
disagreement with another theology, especially if it is the Theology of the
Day, like Liberation Theology or even Islam, it is called “Hate”.
In the English-speaking world
prior to the 18th Century, the word “hate” was understood to have as
many inflections and applications of meaning as the world “love” does. Just as one can love coffee and love his or
her spouse doesn’t mean there exists a romantic relationship and agape
committal to…. a cup of coffee. Just
because you love horror flicks doesn’t mean it tastes good, or that you have a
romantic relationship with it. And these
same dimensions apply to the word “hate”.
We do recognize some of these shades of meaning, but all too often
conveniently ignore the others.
Especially if it bolsters and argument.
The context of this discussion resides in the literature of Scripture and its various English translations up to the Authorized Version of 1600 and the 1746 Cambridge spelling edits. It was during this Shakespearean era that English was at its literary and grammatical peak. It was a period where spoken and written English was much closer suited for Greek and Hebrew translation. The English “What he saith, I wot not” comes much closer to the Koine Greek than “I don’t know what he said” … although the central meaning is more or less understood. There is no “more or less” in the KJV. English has changed, friends, not the MSSs used to translate from. We need to understand, rather, the high level and outdated, yet specific English language of 1611.
There were some aspects of Printed English that had yet to be sorted out by the printers (no pun intended) involving the use of relatively new letters to our language at the dawn of the 17th century. The juxta positioning of the traditional v and the u, for instance. Also what to do with the good old letter "thorn", which in Welsh resembled a capital U with a right sided ascender. Printers chose the capital Y as a substitute by Caxton's day, but the v and u debacle was not settled until well into the 17th century. A holdover from that era is the modern "w", which is still called the "double-U". In fact, some printers locked up two "u"s to represent the "ooh-ah" dipthong. But this is another subject I will be glad to geek with you on at another time. Just remember: Ye olde Coffee Shop is actually "The" old Coffee shop. Oh, and they pronounced it "they".
That one was for free.
In scripture, the word ‘hate’ is
frequently used. It is said of both God
and of
But what does Scripture have to
say about ‘hate’ and the Nature of God.?
We find that God is a God of Justice, a God that loves with a perfect
Love . . . and that He hates. What does
this ‘hatred’ look like?
There are many passages in both
testaments which speak of hatred.
However, as with many biblical words, it would be quite wrong to argue
that the word has the same meaning in every place, or that in every place the context
is exactly the same. Biblical words have contexts, and contexts must be studied.
Any explanation of a text, void
of its context is a pretext.
In general, there are three types of ‘hatred’ handled in scripture.
The first example of malevolent
hatred among men that we find in Scripture is that of Cain towards his brother Abel. So much was the ill will and desire to hurt
in Cain’s heart that he murdered his brother.
Such malevolent hatred is consistently and invariably condemned in
Scripture:
1 Jn
(11) For this is the message
which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another;
(12) not as Cain, who was of the
evil one, and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because
his deeds were evil, while his brother Abel's were righteous.
(13) Do not marvel, brethren, if
the world hates you.
(14) We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we
love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.
(15) Everyone who hates his
brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding
in him.
Such hatred is always sinful, and
to attach this attribute to God would be absolute blasphemy. When God is said to hate, it must be in the
exercise of holy hatred and not this sinful fleshly hatred, for the all-holy God
cannot sin, and, therefore, cannot hate with malice and ill-will. Such hatred does not accurately describe God, the Son, and neither does it accurately describe the Bride. (Doxa)
2. Priority hatred
Believers are commanded to use priority
hatred. Indeed, without it a person
cannot be a disciple of Christ. Every
disciple is called to hate his father, mother, wife, children, brothers,
sisters and life:
Luke 14:26
(26) "If anyone comes to
Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and
brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
Only evil cults understand this
to be a call for malevolent hatred.
Believers know that they are required to give Christ the very first
place (priority) in their loyalties and affection and to allow no one and nothing to take the position
that He should have in their lives.
Priority hatred involves making choices and putting responsibilities
into an order of importance. Christ must
have the pre-eminent place in our affections and obedience. This hatred is a holy hatred. God exercises priority hatred. He assents to bless an Ishmael but gives
priority to an Isaac and makes his covenant with him:
Gen 17:17-21
(17) Then Abraham fell on his
face and laughed, and said in his heart, "Will a child be born to a man
one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a
child?"
(18) And Abraham said to God,
"Oh that Ishmael might live before Thee!"
(19) But God said, "No, but
Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I
will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his
descendants after him.
(20) "And as for Ishmael, I
have heard you; behold, I will bless him, and will make him fruitful, and will
multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of twelve princes, and I
will make him a great nation.
(21) "But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear
to you at this season next year."
3. Judicial hatred
When a judge hands over a
criminal for execution, he exercises judicial hatred. The Hebrew root denotes separation, removing from the group. Today we would call it arresting or arraigning. The criminal must bear the penalty of his
crimes, and, in capital offences, die without mercy. God exercises this judicial hatred. It is the manifestation of His holy and
righteous indignation with sin. It is
often linked in Scripture with priority hatred.
Through the prophet Malachi this
awesome sentence was reiterated.
Judicial hatred was declared in the context of priority hatred:
Mal 1:2-3
(2) "I have loved
you," says the LORD. But you say, "How hast Thou loved us?"
"Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" declares the LORD. "Yet I have
loved Jacob;
(3) But I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation,
and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness."
Esau rejected God’s birthright and held it in low esteem (priority hatred). He had no
room for anything that would make him subordinate to anything. Esau was a “man’s man” and would pull
himself up by his own bootstraps. He
was the hunter, the out-doors man. Jacob
was the mamma’s boy, preferring the tents to the woods, baking bread – making
soup. Let HIM have this Birthright. I don’t need it! And so, God rejected him! Esau was handed over to reap what he had
sown, without mercy.
It is impossible for God to
exercise malevolent hatred, but he does exercise priority hatred and judicial
hatred. These are consistent with His
character. He chooses to save those whom
He has revealed Himself to, and chooses to pass by the rest of rejecting
mankind in its sin (utter rebellion). Eternity will see the full manifestation
of judicial hatred against sinful humanity.
Understanding the implications
It is sometimes gratuitously
assumed by those who loudly declare God’s hatred of the “Non Elect”, or
Sinners, the Unredeemed of humanity, that priority
and judicial hatred precludes all
possibility for the unregenerate to know
anything of the love of God in any way.
This is a serious mistake. It is
inconsistent with the examples of such hate
in action in the Scriptures, particularly those Scriptures which are
complimentary to the teaching of holy hatred.
Gen 29:29-35
(29) And Laban gave to Rachel
his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.
(30) And he went in also unto
Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven
other years.
(31) And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but
Rachel was barren.
(32) And Leah conceived, and
bare a son, and she called his name Reuben: for she said, Surely the LORD hath
looked upon my affliction; now therefore my husband will love me.
(33) And she conceived again,
and bare a son; and said, Because the LORD hath heard that I was hated, he hath
therefore given me this son also: and she called his name Simeon.
(34) And she conceived again,
and bare a son; and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto me,
because I have born him three sons: therefore was his name called Levi.
(35) And she conceived again,
and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the LORD: therefore she called
his name
Jacob is said to have hated Leah
and to have loved Rachel. God noted this
hatred and blessed Leah with children and inflicted barrenness on Rachel. The very fact that Leah could have Jacob’s
children meant that in spite of his hatred for her, he still fulfilled his
marital duties to her. This hatred
neither excluded all responsibilities to her, nor all the pleasure in her as
his wife. He gave priority in his
affections to Rachel, but this did not mean he had no time, attention,
affection and care for Leah. Yet she is
justly, according to biblical terminology, described as hated.
What of our Lord’s teaching that
we are to hate our families?
Luke 14:26
(26) "If anyone comes to
Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and
brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
Does hating them for Christ’s
sake mean that we are to become bad parents and partners, neglecting them and
dismissing them altogether from our affections and responsibilities?
Of course not! The hatred Christ commands is not a negation of the natural
affection that we are to have for our families.
Being Christians does not make us neglect our responsibilities to
them. It simply puts them in their
proper place in our order of priorities.
John 12:25
(25) "He who loves his life loses it; and he
who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.
Does the command that we should
hate our lives call us to self-neglect and sado-masochism? The very question
gives its own answer. There is nothing inconsistent
for those who hate their lives with feeding and caring for their bodies:
(28) So husbands ought also to
love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves
himself;
(29) for no one ever hated his
own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,
(30) because we are members of
His body.
When God hates those who
consistently reject Him with the hatred of priority, before he brings them to
their full experience of judicial hatred in eternity, we must not assume that such
hatred means that he ceases to care for them, show them benevolence, kindness,
affection and love. There is a hatred
that is not malevolent and devoid of kindness.
Even when the judge has sentenced the prisoner to death, and that
sentence is inevitable, he does not have to order the prisoner to be maltreated
while he awaits execution in order to show how opposed he is to his crimes! Malevolent hatred has no place here.
Holy hatred still shows love
Those whom God hates with
priority hatred and on whom He will inflict judicial hatred are . . . .
1. Still His ‘offspring' in the sense that He created them. (Acts
(24) God that made the world and all things
therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples
made with hands;
(25) Neither is worshipped with
men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and
breath, and all things;
(26) And hath made of one blood
all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath
determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
(27) That they should seek the
Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far
from every one of us:
(28) For in him we live, and
move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
Whatever man has become through
sin, to whatever depths he has sunk, he is still the ‘offspring’ of God. True, only the elect, the Redeemed are sons
by adoption, but the most wretched of the sinful race is still a product of the
creative power of God and one in whom there remains something of the image of
God (Imago Dei), however totally depraved, blinded and spiritually dead. God never forgets
that man is made in His image and is the work of His hands. In other words, God is mindful that we are
His creation. He did personally sculpt
man from earth, and breathed life, both spiritual and physical, into His
creation. We are the special work of His
Hands.
We must remember that God the
Creator does not look with indifference on the things He has created. We need to avoid being a “Jonah” – that is,
content so long as our needs are being met while we sit waiting for God to
exercise His wrath on this evil and unbelieving world. To such, God shows Himself to be of a quite
different character. God has a concern
for the 120,000 small children of
2. Still recipients of his
kindness
It is correct to read the history
of the non-Israelite nations in Romans 1 and to see them handed over to the
wickedness of their hearts and allowed to go their own ways. But as the apostle reminded such nations of those
years of wandering, He also asserted that even then God had not left them
without witness, but had done them good in giving, providing for them and
causing them joy:
Act
(16) "And in the
generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways;
(17) and yet He did not leave
Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and
fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness."
The nations that did not want to
retain the knowledge of God were not totally abandoned by Him. God did good to the pagans and the
unregenerate even when they were allowed, given over, to walk in their own
ways. There is a goodness expressed to
those who are and shall be.
Jesus exhorted His disciples to
love their enemies and do them good, not merely because their reward would be
great, but also that by so doing they would be sons of the Most High, (accurately
describing the Most High) because He is kind to the unthankful and evil:
Luke 6:35
(35) "But love your
enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward
will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to
ungrateful and evil men.
We are to love our enemies
because God loves His. His mercy is the
pattern for ours.
We may try to slide away from the
verb “love” and call it benevolence or general mercy or ‘common grace’. However, we are called to love (agapato) and in so
doing be sons of the Most High. There is
no ambiguity here, except for those who want to create it.
We can say that according to Scripture, the unbelieving world is God’s creative offspring, His creation, and He is kind to them. He does them good. He shows them kindness. He loves them. His creatorial care and providential provision proclaims this. God does not despise them. He shows them love and kindness. The old English word was "Charity". Make no mistake: Charity is Love in action and provision. A love often rejected by the pride of men.
The attitude of the Son of God
Jesus is the image of the
invisible God. To have seen him is to
have seen the Father, not in his manner of existence, but in his moral
character and Person. We do not look to Christ, the incarnate God to understand
what it means for God to be omnipresent, for Christ in the body does not
represent omnipresence. We do, however,
look to Christ as God incarnate to discover what God is like in his
character and person. Christ is the perfect display
of God’s righteousness, holiness, goodness, mercy and grace.
For this reason we may not draw a
distinction between Christ’s attitudes towards sinners and those of God his
Father. The attitudes of Christ are the
attitudes of God as surely as his words are the words of God. "I and the Father are One".
As very God, Jesus:
1. Was full of compassion
Mat
(36) And seeing the multitudes,
He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like
sheep without a shepherd.
As Jesus preached and healed all
sorts of people, some who would believe and some who would not, the redeemed
and the rejecting, he had compassion towards them because they were like sheep
without a shepherd. He did not look at
the crowd with a distinguishing squint, with compassion on only believers, but
on everyone whom He came into contact with.
We need not confuse the word
compassion with any other understanding than love. Loveless compassion is an oxymoron. It is a repulsive concept, a contradiction in
terms. There is nothing as repugnant as
charity shown without feeling for those who are helped. It is the worst sort of Dickensian hypocrisy
and totally inapplicable to compassion of God Incarnate.
2. Showed love to the impenitent.
Mat
(19) "The Son of Man came
eating and drinking, and they say, 'Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a
friend of tax-gatherers and sinners!' Yet wisdom is vindicated by her
deeds."
Christ’s enemies despised him
because he was the friend of tax collectors and sinners, whereas they only
wanted to hang out with the ‘righteous’.
His friends did not merely include the saved crowd, but the unsaved
also!! There were “elect” Matthews among the tax collectors, but many others
also.
When Jesus met the rich young
ruler, Scripture says that He loved him.
Of course, he did not love him for his sin, but he loved him when he was
yet under its power. We have no evidence
that the rich young ruler ever became a believer, all three Gospel writers omit
any narration of this man becoming a believer.
Christ loved this man because Christ is the friend of sinners, purely
and simply.
Mat 22:1-14
(1) And Jesus answered and spoke
to them again in parables, saying,
(2) "The kingdom of heaven
may be compared to a king, who gave a wedding feast for his son.
(3) "And he sent out his
slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were
unwilling to come.
(4) "Again he sent out
other slaves saying, 'Tell those who have been invited, "Behold, I have
prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and
everything is ready; come to the wedding feast."'
(5) "But they paid no
attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business,
(6) and the rest seized his
slaves and mistreated them and killed them.
(7) "But the king was
enraged and sent his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and set their city
on fire.
(8) "Then he *said to his
slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.
(9) 'Go therefore to the main
highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast.'
(10) "And those slaves went
out into the streets, and gathered together all they found, both evil and good;
and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests.
(11) "But when the king
came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw there a man not dressed in
wedding clothes,
(12) and he *said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here
without wedding clothes?' And he was speechless.
(13) "Then the king said to
the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness; in
that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
(14) "For many are called,
but few are chosen."
Here we have a most remarkable
statement from the mouth of the King. He
came to see the guests and saw one not clothed in wedding garments and ordered
his exclusion into outer darkness, a picture of the man without the
righteousness of Christ who is consigned to outer darkness and separation from
Him forever. How does the King address
him? Even in censuring and judgment, He
calls him ‘friend’.
(50) And Jesus said to him,
"Friend, do what you have come for." Then they came and laid hands on
Jesus and seized Him.
Lest we think that the parable
was only a parable, we see Judas in the very act of the treachery of betrayal,
yet Jesus still addresses him as “friend”.
Just prior, at the Last Supper, when
Jesus offered Judas the bread, He was ceremonially pronouncing Judas as the
Guest of Honour!
3. Commands all men, those who
would believe and those rejecting, to receive spiritual benefit.
Christ taught things that did
direct only to believers, but there were also directions to those who continued
to reject Him.
Joh 12:34-36
(34) The multitude therefore
answered Him, "We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain
forever; and how can You say, 'The Son of Man must be lifted up'? Who is this
Son of Man?"
(35) Jesus therefore said to
them, "For a little while longer the light is among you. Walk while you
have the light, that darkness may not overtake you; he who walks in the
darkness does not know where he goes.
(36) "While you have the
light, believe in the light, in order that you may become sons of light."
These things Jesus spoke, and He departed and hid Himself from them.
There is no distinction
here. He was not saying one thing to
believers and another to unbelievers.
Here he directs all men to walk in His light. He directs them to be sons of light. It is a kindness in God to command sinners to
walk in the light and believe in the light.
It is to their loss, and is a demonstration of their sinfulness, that they
do not hear.
4. Longed that his hearers might
come to Him for salvation.
Mat
(37) "O
Jesus, towards the end of His
ministry, reflected with deep sadness over his unfulfilled longing. He had often longed to gather the Jews under
His saving protection, but they would have none of it. Their determination to die grieved him
deeply. He took no pleasure in the death
of these sinners. He yearned that their
attitude might have been different.
God never enjoys human unbelief.
However, much as their unbelief may be an affront to Him, it is also a grief to
His heart! It grieves Him.
5. Wept over their impending
destruction.
Luk 19:41-44
(41) And when He approached, He
saw the city and wept over it,
(42) saying, "If you had
known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have
been hidden from your eyes.
(43) "For the days shall
come upon you when your enemies will throw up a bank before you, and surround
you, and hem you in on every side,
(44) and will level you to the
ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone
upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation."
You do not weep over people for
whom you do not care. You do not weep
over those whom you are pleased to see suffering and punished. Jesus did not have a “serves you right” attitude. Scripture says that God takes no pleasure in
the death of the wicked.
We have discussed the different
ways that the word “hate” is used, and how it applies to God as regards His
Creation, regarding Sin, and regarding judgment. We have seen that love abounds in “holy
hatred”, that is, the priorities and judgments of a holy and righteous God.
In John 3:16, Jesus declares to
an unbeliever who would soon become a believer that God so loved the world that
He made provision for them to be rescued. There is seen that in what is called
the “hatred” of God, more love and compassion is demonstrated than the highest
love of men, in a consistent manner. In
the Old Testament, while God executed priority and judicial hatred, we see that
He also often provided blessing in the midst of these judgments. In cases where whole nations were put to the
sword by
How then should we live? How should we “hate”?