Hatred and God - a study
How does telling someone "God hates homosexuals" actually glorify God?
Do most humans have a "good" concept of hatred, as if there's ever a time for hatred to be "ok"?
Will these unsaved masses suddenly think God is great because He hates them or will they think He's being arbitrary and hate Him right back?
We, being human, really aren't capable of hating and loving someone at the same time without troubles. The hate sits on one side of a scale and the love on another and eventually one overcomes the other and things might get messy. Hate is like yeast - a little bit tends to ferment the whole lump.
Therefore the Lord commanded us:
Leviticus 19:17
Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.
So we are not allowed to hate people, but we are expected to call them out if we know they are sinning.
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Does God hate homosexuals (or anyone else)?
The word "hate" (or words translated as hate) come up 179 times in the KJV.
Of those times, the only instances I could find for God hating people were here:
Psalms 5:5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
Now this is interesting because it's David writing it, and it's one of his earliest psalms.
But David was a King -- not a Prophet. I do believe David was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write these psalms, but that just does not mean that every word of them should be taken as on par with Scriptural insight by prophecy or commandment. That was not David's office. He was not anointed in that way.
Does David grow in his understanding of God as his life continues?
Well...in Psalm 11:5 David writes ... The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.
Does God even have a soul? ... again is David writing the way the Apostles and Prophets did...or is he writing his *human* thoughts, feelings, emotions, and edifications as a growing and developing person. He's seeing God as a Person, which is good...but perhaps he is lowering God to the tiny box that we fill up as people...which is not so good.
By Psalm 45:7 David writes ... Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness....
Now God never changes...so either God hates wicked people as in psalm 5, or God hates wickedness as in psalm 45. To be fair, the two are not mutually exclusive. God could hate wickedness and the wicked....
But it really does appear to me that what changed over time was David's understanding of God.
By Psalm 119:104 David confirms that *he* was learning the difference between hating evil and hating people. .... "Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way."
And yet, by Psalm 139 David speaks of how *he* hates those who hate God. It's written in very sincere tones -- but it's wrong according to the commandment given by God to not hate one's brother. David was transgressing by endulging hatred.
David wasn't perfect. His imperfections in understanding (and action!) are recorded in the Bible because sometimes we need to have a record of what NOT to do.
David writes at least 11 more psalms...and not once in any of them does he speak again of either him or God hating anyone.
David's son Solomon picks up in the Proverbs...and he speaks of things the Lord hates...but not people.
Solomon does warn us that hating people often leads to the additional transgression of lying and further abominations (all 7 in fact apparently)...because most of us will lie rather than come out and say who or what we hate:
Proverbs 26:24 He that hateth dissembleth with his lips, and layeth up deceit within him; 25When he speaketh fair, believe him not: for there are seven abominations in his heart.
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It is interesting to note that there is no reference at all in the New Testament for God hating anyone.
In Romans 4 Paul quotes the passage from Malachi where God says he loved Jacob but hated Esau, but he does so specifically from the standpoint of making *sense* of this apparently arbitrary dissemination of love and hatred.
Between Malachi and Romans, it really seems to me that Jacob and Esau are being used as "surnames" to indicate the two nations that would rise out of those lines -- not the specific men.
Having said all of that, I believe it is possible that God -- having thoughts which are not our thoughts and ways which are not our ways -- may indeed be able to hate and love someone at the same time in a way mortal humans would not be able to do.
But so what?
Jesus did not say to us "Go out and tell the world that my Father hates wicked people."
Well WE ARE ALL WICKED PEOPLE until the moment of being born again. Even then, we work out the sin that remains in our flesh until our Lord makes us perfect in body as well as spirit.
Spreading hatred is not fulfiling the Great Commission.
That's just spewing vitriol that I highly doubt will ever bring anyone to the Lord...and I fully expect it will push some people further away.
