Many sermons have been preached on who to love, who to hate, what to love, and what to hate. Many articles have been written on who to love, who to hate, what to love, and what to hate. For me, it all boils down to a simple principle: Don’t hate anyone who God loves! Don’t love anything that God hates!
Don’t hate anyone who God loves
My goal toward others is to not hate anyone who God loves. This is a very simple principle because God loved the whole world. John 3:16 tells us there isn’t anyone who God hates, or anyone who God does not love.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you this: Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. In this way you show that you are children of your Father in heaven. He makes his sun rise on people whether they are good or evil. He lets rain fall on them whether they are just or unjust. If you love those who love you, do you deserve a reward? Even the tax collectors do that! Are you doing anything remarkable if you welcome only your friends? Everyone does that! That is why you must be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48 GWT)
“But I tell everyone who is listening: Love your enemies. Be kind to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who insult you. If someone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other cheek as well. If someone takes your coat, don’t stop him from taking your shirt. Give to everyone who asks you for something. If someone takes what is yours, don’t insist on getting it back. “Do for other people everything you want them to do for you. “If you love those who love you, do you deserve any thanks for that? Even sinners love those who love them. If you help those who help you, do you deserve any thanks for that? Sinners do that too. If you lend anything to those from whom you expect to get something back, do you deserve any thanks for that? Sinners also lend to sinners to get back what they lend. Rather, love your enemies, help them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then you will have a great reward. You will be the children of the Most High God. After all, he is kind to unthankful and evil people. Be merciful as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:27-36 GWT)
Look at it this way: At the right time, while we were still helpless, Christ died for ungodly people. Finding someone who would die for a godly person is rare. Maybe someone would have the courage to die for a good person. Christ died for us while we were still sinners. This demonstrates God’s love for us. Since Christ’s blood has now given us God’s approval, we are even more certain that Christ will save us from God’s anger. If the death of his Son restored our relationship with God while we were still his enemies, we are even more certain that, because of this restored relationship, the life of his Son will save us. In addition, our Lord Jesus Christ lets us continue to brag about God. After all, it is through Christ that we now have this restored relationship with God. (Romans 5:6-11 GWT)
Dear friends, we must love each other because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born from God and knows God. The person who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, because God is love. God has shown us his love by sending his only Son into the world so that we could have life through him. This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the payment for our sins. Dear friends, if this is the way God loved us, we must also love each other. No one has ever seen God. If we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. We know that we live in him and he lives in us because he has given us his Spirit. We have seen and testify to the fact that the Father sent his Son as the Savior of the world. (1 John 4:7-14 GWT)
God lives in those who declare that Jesus is the Son of God, and they live in God. We have known and believed that God loves us. God is love. Those who live in God’s love live in God, and God lives in them. God’s love has reached its goal in us. So we look ahead with confidence to the day of judgment. While we are in this world, we are exactly like him [with regard to love]. No fear exists where his love is. Rather, perfect love gets rid of fear, because fear involves punishment. The person who lives in fear doesn’t have perfect love. We love because God loved us first. Whoever says, “I love God,” but hates another believer is a liar. People who don’t love other believers, whom they have seen, can’t love God, whom they have not seen. Christ has given us this commandment: The person who loves God must also love other believers. (1 John 4:15-21 GWT)
Don’t love anything that God hates
My goal for myself is to not love anything that God hates. This is a simple principle because God has not given me the right to judge anyone but myself.
Examine yourselves to see whether you are still in the Christian faith. Test yourselves! Don’t you recognize that you are people in whom Jesus Christ lives? Could it be that you’re failing the test? I hope that you will realize that we haven’t failed the test. We pray to God that you won’t do anything wrong. It’s not that we want to prove that we’ve passed the test. Rather, we want you to do whatever is right, even if we seem to have failed. We can’t do anything against the truth but only to help the truth. We’re glad when we are weak and you are strong. We are also praying for your improvement. That’s why I’m writing this letter while I’m not with you. When I am with you I don’t want to be harsh by using the authority that the Lord gave me. The Lord gave us this authority to help you, not to hurt you. (2 Corinthians 13:5-10 GWT)
Who are you to criticize someone else’s servant? The Lord will determine whether his servant has been successful. The servant will be successful because the Lord makes him successful. (Romans 14:4 GWT)
Why do you criticize or despise other Christians? Everyone will stand in front of God to be judged. (Romans 14:10 GWT)
So let’s stop criticizing each other. Instead, you should decide never to do anything that would make other Christians have doubts or lose their faith. The Lord Jesus has given me the knowledge and conviction that no food is unacceptable in and of itself. But it is unacceptable to a person who thinks it is. So if what you eat hurts another Christian, you are no longer living by love. Don’t destroy anyone by what you eat. Christ died for that person. (Romans 14:13-15 GWT)
Someone may say, “I’m allowed to do anything,” but not everything is helpful. I’m allowed to do anything, but I won’t allow anything to gain control over my life. Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food, but God will put an end to both of them. However, the body is not for sexual sin but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. God raised the Lord, and by his power God will also raise us. Don’t you realize that your bodies are parts of Christ’s body? Should I take the parts of Christ’s body and make them parts of a prostitute’s body? That’s unthinkable! Don’t you realize that the person who unites himself with a prostitute becomes one body with her? God says, “The two will be one.” However, the person who unites himself with the Lord becomes one spirit with him. (1 Corinthians 6:12-17 GWT)
Someone may say, “I’m allowed to do anything,” but not everything is helpful. I’m allowed to do anything, but not everything encourages growth. People should be concerned about others and not just about themselves. Eat anything that is sold in the market without letting your conscience trouble you. Certainly, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything it contains is his.” If an unbeliever invites you [to his house for dinner], and you wish to go, eat anything he serves you without letting your conscience trouble you. However, if someone says to you, “This was sacrificed to a god,” don’t eat it because of the one who informed you and because of conscience. I’m not talking about your conscience but the other person’s conscience. Why should my freedom be judged by someone else’s conscience? If I give thanks to God for the food I eat, why am I condemned for that? (1 Corinthians 10:23-30 GWT)
There are six things that the LORD hates, even seven that are disgusting to him:
• arrogant eyes
• a lying tongue
• hands that kill innocent people
• a mind devising wicked plans
• feet that are quick to do wrong
• a dishonest witness spitting out lies
• and a person who spreads conflict among relatives.
(Proverbs 6:16-19 GWT)
Jude summed up this whole subject in one of the shortest books of the Bible…
Dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ told you to expect: “In the last times people who ridicule [God] will appear. They will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who cause divisions. They are concerned about physical things, not spiritual things. Dear friends, use your most holy faith to grow. Pray with the Holy Spirit’s help. Remain in God’s love as you look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to give you eternal life. Show mercy to those who have doubts. Save others by snatching them from the fire [of hell]. Show mercy to others, even though you are afraid that you might be stained by their sinful lives. (Jude 1:17-23 GWT)
love is very deep in deed may God help me in a that I will be able to love beyond borders with the love of God.