This view ignores the state of the lost, who can only sin more or sin less and has open the doors to all manner of syncretism within the church militant.
As far as 'hatred of sins' is concerned, sins do not exist apart from the sinner. God does hate sinning, killing, stealing, lying, lusting, etc., but this alludes to the perpetrator of these crimes.
Misconceptions about what it means to "love our enemies" have resulted in a loss of holy indignation and bold opposition against those who hate God. Christ's command tells us only to do good to those who hate us. It is akin to the the natural benevolence that God shows toward all men (Matthew 5:43-45). But Scripture never teaches us to think of the non-believer as something that they are not; rather, Scripture's position is that all non-Christians are
- deceitful and desperately sick (Jer. 17:9);
- full of evil (Mark 7:21-23);
- lovers of darkness rather than light (John 3:19);
- unrighteous, do not understand, do not seek for God (Rom. 3:10-12);
- helpless and ungodly (Rom. 5:6);
- dead in his trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1);
- by nature children of wrath (Eph. 2:3);
- not able to understand spiritual things (1 Cor. 2:14); and
- slaves of sin (Rom. 6:16-20).
For a person to think of sinner as something better amounts to a rejection of divine revelation.
Accordingly, although we are to exhibit a natural benevolence toward non-believers, we must also be jealous for God's honor and imitate His holy hatred toward them. Unfortunately, not a few Christians "love" their enemies in a way that amounts to rebellion against God. In fact, in a properly functioning church these "loving" folk would be admonished and be subject to discipline.
We "love" non-believers in the way commanded by Christ when we offer to do them good and refuse to do them harm (Romans 12:20-21, 13:10). But we should have "nothing but hatred" (Psalm 139:22) toward non-believers in the sense that we oppose all of who they are, what they believe, and what they do, for even the civil "good" they do are for the wrong motives, denying the glory of God.
The plain fact is that our non-believing neighbors regard the Christian faith as false. Such a view is to hate us at the deepest level possible, since the content of the Christian faith permeates all of our thinking and behavior. If there is any aspect of our lives that is not yet controlled by Scriptural precepts, it is only because we are still imperfect in our sanctification, and not that we oppose Scripture on the matter. Therefore, for a person who regards Christianity as false, there is nothing in us for him to love. He cannot love us and hate our beliefs-–We are our beliefs; We are Christians.
The "love" that God and Christians show toward non-believers is to be limited to natural and temporal kindness, but on the spiritual and ideological level, God and Christians are completely opposed to the non-believer.
AMR
