What does the Bible say about hatred?

The Bible passages below can be used in sermons, prayers, or pastoral care focused on hatred.

• Psalm 5:5, God's hatred (God abhors wickedness)
• Psalm 35:19, hatred without cause (don't let those who hate me without cause carry out evil plots against me)
• Psalm 68:1, hatred of God (let God rise up, and let those who hate God flee)
• Psalm 97:10, hatred of evil (those who love God will hate evil)
• Psalm 139:21, hatred for those who hate God (don't I hate those who hate you and loathe those who oppose you, Lord?)
• Ezekiel 18:23, no pleasure in death of the wicked (God wants the wicked to turn from their ways)
• Amos 5:15, hatred of evil (hate evil, love good, pursue justice)
• Amos 5:21, God's hatred of hollow religion (I hate your festivals and solemn assemblies)
• Matthew 5:43-45, hatred of enemies (people say you should hate your enemies, but I say you should love and pray for them)
• Mark 12:31, love, not hatred (love your neighbor as yourself)
• Mark 13:13, hatred of those who follow Jesus (you will experience hatred because of my name)
• Luke 6:27, responding to hatred (love your enemies and do good to those who hate you)
• Luke 14:26, hatred as hyperbole (being my disciple requires you to "hate" your family)
• John 3:16, love, not hate (God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son)
• John 3:20, evil implies hatred of the light (those who do evil avoid the light so their deeds won't be exposed)
• Romans 9:13, love and hate (love for Jacob, hate for Esau)
• Romans 12:9, hatred of evil (hate evil, cling to what is good)
• 1 Timothy 2:3-4, opposite of hatred (God wants everyone to be saved)
• 1 John 2:9-11, hatred is darkness (if you hate another, you walk in darkness)
• 1 John 3:15, hatred is death (if you hate another, you are a murderer)
• 1 John 4:20, hate vs. love (if you say you love God but hate another, you lie)

Sermon ideas about hatred

Hatred is a complex concept in the Bible; it includes various meanings and resists easy categorization. In a sermon on hatred, preachers will need to identify within a text just which meaning is represented there. Still, some solid teachings emerge.

• Human hatred of God lies in the depths of sin. It's passionate opposition to God, rejection of God, hostility toward God. Classically, it stems from taking offense at the idea that God is sovereign over us, superior to us — in other words, that God is God, and not we ourselves. To proud, self-governing human beings, this idea is loathsome. John 3:20 suggests another motive: Because God is light, God exposes our sin to scrutiny and judgment. We can't hide our envy, greed, cruelty, injustice. And this, too, is intolerable. Sinners hate the light and the God who shines it.
• Jesus taught us to love God with everything we have (Matthew 22:37). Obviously, he thereby forbids hatred of God.
• Jesus likewise forbids hatred of other human beings, including enemies. Matthew 5 is classic. We are not to wish the destruction of others. We may dislike them, fear them, or oppose them. But we may not wish to have them removed from the face of the earth. It seems that Old Testament saints sometimes hated their and God's enemies (Psalm 139), but this is only a report of their hatred, not a commandment to hate them. God does not in the Bible command us to hate others.
• Are Jesus' words in Luke 14:26 a counterexample? No. Simple reflection reveals that "hate" cannot be classically meant here. It's foolish to think that obedience to God requires us to have no affection for our parents. Rather, in Luke 14:26, to hate is to love less. A parallel passage in Matthew 10:37 provides the clue: "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me." Jesus is requiring only that relatives not be preferred to him.
• A moment's reflection tells us how much better the world would be if we quit hating each other. No more vicious racism with its smears and assaults. No more hostile tribalism with its hot feuds and cold fury. No more pogroms and genocide. Absent hatred, most wars and rivalries would cease. The prospect of harmony in the world lies at the center of Isaiah's dreams of future shalom and of Revelation's vision of a new heaven and earth, where death and pain will be no more (Revelation 21:1-4).

What God Hates

Does God hate? Absolutely. God hates sin in all its forms — injustice, cruelty, lawlessness, idolatry, adultery, perjury, murder. God hates Israel's worship when it empties out into mere formality or mere bargaining ("We'll give you all the praise you want, and you make our corn grow"). In fact, it is just because we know how much God hates evil that we may trust the vision of a future new heaven and earth.

God hates evil so much as to command us to hate evil as well. Hatred of evil by good people is one of their principal virtues.

So God hates sin, but how about sinners? Does God hate human beings? Texts like Psalm 5:5 suggest that God does hate evildoers. The word "hate" is there, but what is its meaning? Is God's intent to humiliate and destroy evil people, to wipe them from the earth? Does God want to plunge them into despair and then into the abyss? Has God no intent to heal, to rescue, to restore?

Given the whole of the Bible (including Ezekiel 18:23), this sounds more like a description of Satan than of God. Of course, God's wrath and judgment fall on evildoers. God is steadfastly opposed to evildoers in their evil. And it may be that this is what we should understand from texts which say that God hates them.

In any case, biblically instructed Christians believe that God is love. This is essentially, irrevocably, and eternally God's nature. Accordingly, God is not a destroyer, but a Savior. In John's gospel, "the world" is creation, including human creation, in its darkness and sin. It is of this world that Jesus famously speaks in John 3:16-17, a text that stands in its might against any notion that God hates human beings: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him."

Excerpts about hatred

Following are sample excerpts from Zeteosearch.org sermon resources about hatred:

• "Hate has been Satan's weapon which separates brothers and sisters from the same family, church, country, continent and world. We become separated when the conditions are ripe, when justice is missing and when oppression furthers division and enmity." Prayer by Joji Pantoja from Together in Worship
• "In these related passages, Jesus' instruction is to pray for, and do good to those who hate us. It is a shocking, tough standard to meet! Just that teaching alone would give most of us something to confess to God." Scripture Meditation or Sermon by Constance Morganstern from WordSown
• "The absurd violence, and the many wars, which are breaking the courage of the people of the world: militarism and armaments race, which are threatening life on the planet: human greed and injustice, which breed hatred and strife." Prayer of Intercession from ReWorship