So, here is the key. God's hatred of sin is a “perfect hatred.” To really learn how to love, you must also learn how to hate. Jesus says, “If anyone come to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.” (Lk 14:26)

So am I to divorce my wife and throw out the kids? No, of course not. He also commands us, “You shall love… your neighbor as yourself.” (Lk 10:27) “Husbands, love your wives.” (Eph 5:25) “He who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (1 Jn 4:20) “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God and every one who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 Jn 4:7-8) Do these and many other passages contradict Luke 14:26?

Again no, of course not. God is one. There are no contradictions in His Word. The “perfect hatred” of God is always combined with the “perfect love” of God, and He wants us to become like Him. A footnote in my Bible resolves this by saying we are to hate everyone else only by comparison to our love for God. “He who loves father or mother more than Me [comparatively speaking] is not worthy of Me, and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” (Matt 10:37) Well, that’s part of it, but it goes deeper, much deeper.

To know God, we’ve got to love as He loves. To love as He loves, we’ve simply got to learn to hate as He hates. He doesn’t hate the sinner, oh no! His perfect love reaches out to everyone, even His enemies. (See Matt 5:43-48) He hates the sin! More than that, He hates the sin nature which has enslaved His beloved. He is working throughout the ages of time to destroy that sin nature, so He can set His beloved free! Wouldn’t you also hate all that is harming your beloved?

That is what hell is for. God’s justice must be satisfied. The sinner must be punished. God’s perfect hatred is a consuming fire. Yet once every evil deed has received its due penalty and that sin nature has been burned up and destroyed, the rebel sinner will get another chance to bow the knee and “confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2:11) God loves the sinner, too, and Scripture assures us that His love never fails. (1 Cor 13:8)

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