Why Does Scripture say God Hates When Clearly God Loves Even the Worst of Sinners?

Readers feel a tension the Bible itself resolves. Scripture declares that God loves the world and gives his Son so that “whoever believes” has life, yet it also says he “hates all evildoers” and the one who loves violence (John 3:16; Psalm 5:5; Psalm 11:5). These are not rival portraits but two angles on the same holy God—his genuine compassion for sinners and his personal opposition to evil. John’s third chapter holds the strands together: love reaches wide in the sending of the Son, while those who reject the Son remain under wrath (John 3:16–18; John 3:36). The cross is where that tension is judged and mercy is opened.

Much of the difficulty lifts when we let Scripture teach its own vocabulary. Sometimes “hate” is covenant shorthand for “not choose” or “love less,” as when God chose Jacob, not Esau, to carry promise, or when Jesus demands allegiance beyond family (Malachi 1:2–3; Luke 14:26; Matthew 10:37). Other times it names God’s righteous stance against entrenched wickedness, because evil is never abstracted from people who practice it (Proverbs 6:16–19; Psalm 11:5). Held under John 3, both senses serve the good news: the world God loves is warned truthfully and invited sincerely.

Words: 1306 / Time to read: 7 minutes

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Historical and Cultural Background

Ancient Hebrew used love/hate as comparative covenant language. “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated” announces a historical choosing for a role rather than a denial of compassion for Esau’s line; the same idiom explains Jesus’s startling call to “hate” family—meaning to love him more (Malachi 1:2–3; Luke 14:26; Matthew 10:37). Genesis shows the same pattern when Leah, “loved less,” is described with the verb “hated,” a household idiom of standing, not hostility (Genesis 29:30–31). Understanding this helps us hear Scripture’s cadence without flattening it into modern usage.

Other texts speak of God’s moral opposition to those who cling to violence, deceit, and pride. “You hate all evildoers” and “his soul hates the one who loves violence” announce that the Holy One is not neutral about harm (Psalm 5:5; Psalm 11:5). That stance sits within God’s mission through a chosen line meant to bless the nations, showing that election serves mercy’s reach, not its restriction (Genesis 12:1–3; Isaiah 49:6). And in John’s Gospel the same chapter that proclaims world-embracing love also warns that refusing the Son leaves a person under judgment—a verdict removed only by looking to the One lifted up (John 3:14–18; Numbers 21:8–9).

Biblical Narrative

The Bible’s story moves from a good creation to human revolt and then to a promise through Abraham for the sake of all families (Genesis 1:31; Genesis 12:1–3). Israel is loved by sheer grace, disciplined in holiness, and commissioned as a light to nations, which shows that God’s particular choosing advances his worldwide purpose (Deuteronomy 7:7–8; Isaiah 42:6). The prophets pair mercy with moral clarity: the Lord forgives and renews, yet he stands against injustice and idolatry because love must oppose what destroys the beloved (Exodus 34:6–7; Amos 5:21–24).

Jesus embodies that double edge. He welcomes tax collectors and sinners and says the sick need a physician, yet he exposes hypocrisy and warns cities that reject him (Luke 5:29–32; Matthew 11:20–24). To Nicodemus he reveals the center: God loved the world and gave the Son; whoever looks to him lives; whoever refuses him remains under wrath (John 3:14–18, 36). After the cross and resurrection the message goes public to the nations, even as the apostles warn that wrath comes on those who harden themselves—truth-telling that serves salvation, not spite (Acts 10:34–43; Ephesians 5:6; 1 Timothy 2:3–6).

Theological Significance

Two uses of “hate” safeguard both God’s freedom and God’s goodness. As covenant idiom, it marks choosing and not-choosing within God’s plan; as moral language, it names his settled opposition to evil (Malachi 1:2–3; Psalm 11:5). Neither contradicts John 3; both require it. God’s love is layered: preserving kindness to all, saving welcome to believers, and familial care for his people (Matthew 5:45; John 6:37; Romans 8:15–17). Wrath is the steady face of that love toward what ruins us; it is not a mood swing but a holy verdict (Romans 1:18). To deny wrath would shrink love to indulgence; to deny love would leave only despair.

At the cross love and wrath meet. Jesus is lifted up like the serpent in the wilderness so that faith brings life; God publicly sets him forth to turn aside wrath and to justify the believer without bending justice (John 3:14–15; Romans 3:25–26). The one who knew no sin is made sin for us, the cursed becomes our blessing, the Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13–14; John 10:11). Here is how God can love sinners and be against sin: the Judge bears judgment so the guilty may go free.

Election and invitation walk together. God chooses instruments so the blessing reaches farther, and he calls all people everywhere to repent and believe; whoever calls on the Lord will be saved (Genesis 12:3; Acts 17:30–31; Romans 10:9–13). The way God administers his will shifts by stages while his character remains constant: the law written on stone gives way to the Spirit writing on hearts; repeated sacrifices yield to one finished offering; a single nation gives way to a worldwide people who taste firstfruits now and wait for fullness later (2 Corinthians 3:5–6; Hebrews 10:10–14; Hebrews 6:5). In this stage, the church announces forgiveness in Jesus’s name to all and warns of judgment for those who refuse him (Luke 24:46–47; John 3:36).

Spiritual Lessons and Application

Read hard words in context and in harmony. Where “hate” signals covenant choosing, let Malachi and Jesus’s own idiom instruct the ear; where it names moral opposition, let the psalms and proverbs sharpen conscience; then stand them beneath John 3 where the Son is offered to the world and wrath is removed only in him (Malachi 1:2–3; Luke 14:26; Psalm 5:5; John 3:16–18). The aim is not to mute either note but to hear the chord.

Come to Christ and learn the Father’s heart. The worst of sinners is invited; the thief finds paradise; the persecutor becomes a preacher; those far off are brought near (Luke 23:42–43; 1 Timothy 1:15–16; Ephesians 2:13). Hating evil and loving people is family likeness: abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good, pray for enemies, and speak the gospel with patience because kindness still leads to repentance (Romans 12:9; Matthew 5:44–45; Romans 2:4). The church’s tone should mirror Jesus’s table and Jesus’s temple—tender to the broken, firm against harm.

Conclusion

Scripture’s hard lines about what God hates and its radiant lines about whom God loves are not opposites; they belong together. Love that never opposes evil is indifference, and opposition that never opens a door is despair. John 3 sets the banner: God loved the world and gave his Son; those who believe are not condemned; those who refuse remain under wrath (John 3:16–18, 36). The cross shows why both claims are true: there the Judge bears judgment and the Friend of sinners opens his arms.

So when you read that God hates, stand at Golgotha. See wrath answered and mercy poured out, see holiness upheld and sinners welcomed. Believe the Son and live; refuse him and the verdict you carry need not be your last line (John 3:14–18, 36). The Father’s heart is written in the Son’s wounds.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:16–18)