Does God Hate The Sin But Love The Sinner?

It is extremely common for many people who call themselves Christians today to promote the Idea that God hates the sin but loves the sinner. This false claim that God loves everyone arises from a desire to avoid offending people and driving them away from Christianity and the Bible. The problem with this, however, is that Christians are called to preach the truth no matter how offensive it might be. The fact of the matter is that the Bible was, is and always will be offensive to fallen sinners. We are not called to tamper and make changes to the truth in order to appeal to spiritually dead sinners. We are to preach the truth and leave the rest up to God.

The idea of God only hating the sin and still loving the sinner is not found anywhere in the Bible. In fact, we read that God not only hates the sin, but also hates the sinner. After all, what is it that goes to hell? The sin or the sinner? The truth is that sinners go to hell and receive eternal punishment. This punishment is a result of God being a just God and not allowing the wicked to go unpunished. Many people want to say that "God is love" and limit God to only one attribute thereby ignoring all of his other attributes such as holiness and justice. We must recognize that a God who loves what is good is going to hate what is evil. When God flooded the earth he rid the earth of evil sinners, not just of evil sin.

Psalm 5:5 speaks of God and states simply: "The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you (God) hate all who do wrong." Notice that this verse does not say that God hates the sin of those who do wrong. It says He hates "those who do wrong." This does not mean that God hates everyone. The Bible makes it very clear that God loves His children whom he has chosen from before the foundation of the world. As we read in Ephesians chapter 1: "In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will- to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves."

In the same way that we as humans might have a general love for people but a special love for our children or family members, God also has a special love for those he has chosen to be his children. It is this special love for God's children that we as Christians need to promote instead of the false idea that God has this special love for everyone. If we preach the truth of the Bible then we are inevitably going to offend people just as the Bible says. We have no right to preach false claims such as "God hates the sin but loves the sinner." This will not save anyone.