Answering Questions from Teenagers - “Does God Really Love the Sinner, but Hate the Sin?”
Our pastors will be addressing a few questions that came from our teenagers during youth camp this year. These questions reveal a true desire for answers, for truth, and for guidelines on what do to in specific situations. We are thankful our teenagers have the freedom to ask, and we will attempt to provide solid, biblically-founded, gospel-centered answers to each.
“Does God Really Love the Sinner, But Hate the Sin?”
For anyone who has been part of the evangelical sub-culture for any length of time, this phrase has likely been heard, if not quoted. It is not an empty phrase and often is offered as a form of comfort to an individual who is struggling with his or her own sinful desires. To be told that God loves them despite their sin can be an incredibly comforting phrase. Yet, as I expressed in my previous post regarding God’s hate or sin and sinners (click here for that article,) the oversimplification of some of our common phrases may espouse a theology that runs alongside the biblical narrative, rather than find itself cemented within.
Does God love the sinner? Certainly, in the sense that God so loves the world, as quoted in the Gospel of John.
John 3:16 (ESV)
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.[1]
Yet, the question reveals something that is troubling. Most people do not like to discuss sin, especially their own. Even when discussing the sin of others, if avoidance of gossip is done, the fear of “judging others” leads to a minimization of that which is abhorrent to God.
Many declare “Who am I to judge others?” when confronted with other’s choices, lifestyles, actions, and thoughts.
Certainly, an avoidance of judgment may be one’s own attempt to take Christ’s words to heart from his Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 7:1 (ESV)
Judge not, that you be not judged.[2]
Nevertheless, many Christians who have been taught to pick and choose their “verses of the day” may ultimately be doing more harm than good to their own testimony and walk with Christ. Ignorance of context and the full teaching within the Word often leaves one wanting at best, heretical at worst.
In this case regarding Christ’s statement about judgment, he was not declaring a blanket rule regarding the actions of judgment of God’s people upon others. A community without judgment becomes a lawless attempt at anarchy. Now, I’m not advocating for what we could label legalistic, Pharisaical, arrogant, pious downgrading of others. That is humanity’s default setting of sin comparison and spiritual pecking orders. Yet, when reading the full account of Jesus’s message where this verse regarding judging others is found, it becomes clear that he was speaking to believers. Though to believers, principles for all are clear. The point is to stop focusing on dealing with another’s “speck” in the eye while simultaneously ignoring the “log” in one’s own.[3]
There is a purpose in judging others well. It can and should be godly, for the sake of redemption, correction, and unity in Christ. Everyone has weaknesses and the blessings of the “one-anothers” is to help a brother or sister walk in the freedom offered in Christ.
1 Corinthians 5:12 (ESV)
For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? [4]
The biblical role of godly judgment is something that another posting can cover, but in my opinion, a misunderstanding on Christian judgment and grace leaves many to minimize the reality of sin and thus, lean heavily into statements such as defined in the question of the day from our teenagers.
Does God really love the sinner, but hate the sin?
Ultimately, the question is incomplete. It is not a false statement, but it certainly is misleading. John Piper puts it this way…
“What is misleading about it is the word but – “but hates the sin” because but should be and. God loves the sinner and hates the sin. But implies he doesn’t hate the sinner – that is not true. God does hate sinners…it is just not true to give the impression that God doesn’t hate sinners by saying he loves the sinner and hates the sin. He does hate sinners. His wrath is real. It is not something he pours out on people he approves of.[5]
Even reading that quote will make some uncomfortable, if not angry. Why? Likely due to version of religious teaching that often propagates in churches, and certainly finds its place on The New York Times “Christian” bestseller lists.
Functional universalists hate the concept of sin, and the idea of hell is just beyond the pale. And when I speak of functional universalists, I am not referring to those who have blatantly declared their belief that everyone goes to heaven because of their self-declared understanding of good and bad (one of the enemy’s greatest lies,) but for those who have been active in local, Bible-teaching churches for years, but when faced with the reality of eternity separated from God (most often evident at the funeral services of lost loved ones) the tragic reality of hell is just too much. Thus, even those who may be members in good standing struggle so deeply with the reality that not every family member who was deeply loved by their earthly family, but had rejected Christ throughout life will be separated from God and other believers for eternity.
Certainly God really loves the sinner, right? Yes, but no. God is love. This is certain. Yet, to make this statement with no qualifiers or defining words related to love is to simply ignore portions of scripture that say the opposite. For example…
Psalm 5:4-6 (ESV)
For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. [6]
Sin is evil. It is built into our identity at birth due to the curse of Eden. It is our default, factory setting and nothing other than a power greater than the collective “want to” of all of humanity can remedy us, repair us, redeem us. The psalmist speaks of this great God and the love that defines him in the very next verse.
Psalm 5:7 (ESV)
But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you. [7]
God is love, but we must remember that it is not sin that is exiled to hell, it is sinners. God has enmity with those sinners, and they have enmity with him.[8]
It is, however more complete to say that for those who are the children of God, the redeemed, the blood-bought, born-again Christians, we are loved…even as sinners. Yet, as children of God, we are not simply “sinners saved by grace” but more accurately “saints who sometimes sin.” Our sin is not our identity and yet, our sin remains evil, abhorrent, and rebellious to our holy God. But thanks be to God for Jesus Christ who has made the way because he is the Way.
God loves the sinful who are repentant and trusting Christ, but hates our sin.[9]
So…are we to love the sinner, but hate the sin?
Perhaps the closest to this concept is in the New Testament book of Jude.[10]
Jude 22-23
And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. [11]
Yet, even that passage is more instructional for believers in how we are to treat others rather than how God views them. This is more of an evangelistic charge to the church to reveal our love for the Lord in showing love, and mercy, to others. Our love for God moves us to compassion to those defined by sin. Why? Because God is love primarily, but also because each of us have a biography defined by our sin nature before redemption.
May we be students of the Word, desiring to dive more deeply into our study, not settling for “verse-a-day” theology that can fool us into thinking we know more than we do. May we be the redeemed who do not settle for Twitter-length phrases to define who we are in Christ, but those who understand the power of words to explain, define, express, and show God’s great love, while also realizing that sometimes the right words in the wrong way create more problems than revelation.
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[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Jn 3:16). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Mt 7:1). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[3] GotQuestions.org. “What does it mean to judge not lest you be judged (Matthew 7:1)?” GotQuestions.Org, 17 November 2020, https://www.gotquestions.org/judge-not-lest-you-be-judged.html.
[4] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (1 Co 5:12). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[5] Piper, John. “God Loves the Sinner, but Hates the Sin?” Desiring God, 27 June 2023, www.desiringgod.org/interviews/god-loves-the-sinner-but-hates-the-sin.
[6] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ps 5:4–6). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[7] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ps 5:7). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[8] Parsons, Burk. “Is It Biblical to Say ‘God Loves the Sinner, but Hates the Sin?’” Ligonier Ministries, www.ligonier.org/learn/qas/is-it-biblical-to-say-god-loves-the-sinner-but-hates-the-sin. Accessed 28 June 2023.
[9] Parsons.
[10] GotQuestions.org. “Are we to love the sinner but hate the sin?” GotQuestions.Org, 22 August 2014, https://www.gotquestions.org/love-sinner-hate-sin.html.
[11] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Jud 22–23). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
