"You shall not murder.” Exodus 20:13

We began last time considering our Lord’s words that hatred is as the sin of murder. We brought up the fact that while murder and hatred are equally damning in the eyes of God, they are not equally damaging to ourselves and to others. This time, let’s ask and attempt to answer the question, “Is all hatred sin?” The answer is NO. Here are two reasons and two warnings:

Reason #1: All hatred is not sin because God hates, and He is not a sinner. Proverbs 6:16-19 list seven sins God hates. This is not an exhaustive list, friends. God, who infinitely loves holiness, infinitely does not love (hates) all that is unholy. So, that God hates proves that not all hatred is sin.

Reason #2: In Psalm 139:21-22, David righteously hated what God hates. So there may be times when the godly experience “righteous indignation” at what God hates. So, again, not all hatred is sin.

Warning #1: God is holy, so His hatred of what is unholy is not sin. But lest we forget, we are not God, and therefore not holy (as God is holy), and therefore our hatred is not always holy. In fact, because sin so permeates our hearts and minds, our hatred is much more likely to be “unrighteous indignation” and therefore sinful. In fact, we can even hate what God hates, but do so in an unrighteous (sinfully self-righteous) manner. We must, therefore, be skeptical about assuming that our hatred is righteous.

Warning #2: We are probably wise to do our dead level best not to hate sins other than our own. Let us concern ourselves with the planks in our own eyes, and in most cases, leave the splinters in other people’s eyes to God.