Hatred sermon ideas

In its classic form, hatred is the disposition deep inside one's will and emotions to destroy something or someone. The hater wants the object of his hatred to be negated, removed, gone. Hatred is morally ambiguous, depending on its object. Thus Christians have been biblically taught to hate evil, but to love persons, including enemies. In Scripture the word "hatred" is sometimes used classically, but sometimes for milder attitudes. In the history of human life, classic hatred has often been a motive for other forms of evil — mockery, slander, assault, betrayal, rape, murder, genocide. Predictably, hatred is a usual root of war.

What does the Bible say about hatred?

  • Psalm 5:5, hate for all evildoers
  • Psalm 35:19, "Do not let my treacherous enemies rejoice over me, or those who hate me without cause wink the eye."
  • Psalm 68:1, "Let God rise up, let his enemies be scattered; let those who hate him flee before him."
  • Psalm 97:10, "The Lord loves those who hate evil."
  • Psalm 139:21, "Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?"
  • Exekiel 18:23, "Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live?"
  • Amos 5:15, "Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate."
  • Amos 5:21, "I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies."
  • Matthew 5:43-45, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy."
  • Mark 12:31, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
  • Mark 13:13, "You will be hated by all because of my name."
  • Luke 6:27, "I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you."
  • Luke 14:26, if you hate another, you cannot be a disciple
  • John 3:16,"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."
  • John 3:20, "All who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed."
  • Romans 9:13, "As it is written, `I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.'"
  • Romans 12:9, hate what is evil
  • 1 Timothy 2:3-4, God desires everyone to be saved
  • 1 John 2:9-11, if you hate another, you walk in darkness
  • 1 John 3:15, if you hate another, you are a murderer
  • 1 John 4:20, if you say that you love God but hate another, you lie

Sermon ideas about hatred

Hatred is a complex concept in scripture, including various meanings and resisting easy categorization. Preachers will need to identify within preaching texts 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 (Ps. 139), but this is only a report of their hatred, not a commandment to hate them. God does not in Scripture 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. "No Christian would dare venture out into the world and declare to the public, without elaborate explanations" that whereas most people have affection for their mothers, Christians have none for theirs and in fact hate them in obedience to their Lord." (Henry Stob, "Does God Hate Some Men?" In Ethical Reflections: Essays on Moral Themes (Eerdmans, 1978), p. 251.) 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" (21:1) where death and pain "will be no more.

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 my 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? Textslike 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 Scripture (including Ezekiel 18:23), this sounds more like a description of Satan than of God. Ofcourse, 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. (Stob, p. 254)

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."

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