Familiar Christian Sayings: A Biblical Examination — Part 1

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Question: We often hear that “God hates sin but loves the sinner.” Is this true?

Answer: I often hear familiar sayings circulating among Christians: “God hates sin but loves the sinner,” “God’s love is unconditional,” “God helps those who help themselves,” “Once saved, always saved,” and “We will go to heaven.” These sayings do not themselves appear in Scripture.1 Yet they seem, to some extent, to match the surface meaning of certain passages, making their accuracy harder to assess. What exactly do they mean? Do they agree with the Bible’s teaching as a whole?

If we accept these sayings without examining them, treating them as self-evident truths, we can stop thinking. Even when reading the Bible, we may automatically filter out teachings that conflict with them. We may eventually end up teaching human commands as doctrine, rendering our worship vain (Mark 7:7).

In this series, I want to examine the problems with these familiar sayings and invite readers to reconsider whether they are true.

What does this saying mean, and what is the problem with it?

When I was a young disciple, I often heard “God hates sin but loves the sinner.” I also said it to others. At first, it sounds perfectly reasonable. We know that God hates sin and that God loves sinners, do we not?

But do these ideas really match what Scripture teaches?

What does it mean to say that God hates sin but loves the sinner? Does God hate only the sinful acts themselves—pride, adultery, selfishness, greed, and so on2—but not the people who commit them? In other words, does he hate only abstract ideas of sin? What is a sinner, if not someone who commits sinful acts? Can the acts really be separated from the person who commits them?

And what does “God loves sinners” mean? Does God love people because they are sinners, or despite their being sinners? Does God particularly love sinful people, or does he love people even though they sin?

If “God loves sinners” means that he pays no attention to their sins, what meaning is left in the claim that he hates sin?

My point is that sin does not exist on its own. People commit sins; sinful acts and the people who commit them cannot be separated. Imagine a mother entering her son’s room, finding that he has left it in complete disorder, and angrily rebuking him. Is she rebuking abstract concepts such as wilfulness and irresponsibility, or the son whose actions have expressed those things?

Can you imagine these situations?

  • Someone hurt by an unfaithful partner saying, “I hate all unfaithful people, but I do not blame you at all.”
  • A judge telling a defendant who abused a young girl to death, “The law punishes the offence of child abuse, not you, the person who abused the child.”

That is unreasonable. The act cannot be separated from its perpetrator. You cannot detest a sin while having no negative response to the person who commits it. Does the statement “God hates child abuse but has no displeasure toward the child abuser—even loves him” strike you as odd? If you detest sin, you will detest the person committing it. Conversely, no one forgives an abstract concept of sin; we forgive a person who has sinned.

More importantly, what does Scripture actually say?

Does God really never detest sinners or the wicked?

Old Testament

Exodus 23:7 (ESV)

7 Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked.

Numbers 16:26 (ESV)

26 And he spoke to the congregation, saying, “Depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be swept away with all their sins.”

Proverbs 15:8–9 (ESV)

8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is acceptable to him.

9 The way of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but he loves him who pursues righteousness.

Micah 3:4 (ESV)

4 Then they will cry to the LORD, but he will not answer them; he will hide his face from them at that time, because they have made their deeds evil.

New Testament

Romans 2:3–8 (ESV)

3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?

4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

6 He will render to each one according to his works:

7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life;

8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.

1 Corinthians 10:1–12 (ESV)

1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,

2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,

3 and all ate the same spiritual food,

4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.

5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.

7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”

8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.

9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents,

10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.

11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

2 Corinthians 13:7 (ESV)

7 But we pray to God that you may not do wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed.

God does not merely detest sinful acts; he detests people’s sinning. He is not dealing with an abstract concept. He saves sinners, forgives sinners, and, when he punishes, punishes sinners.

Does that mean God hates sinners and does not love them?

The expression “God loves sinners” does not appear in Scripture. God does not particularly love people for being sinners. You love your children or your spouse even though they make mistakes; their mistakes are not the reason you love them.

God loves the world. He loves each person, even though we are weak and sin. He hates our sinning because it harms us and also harms other people whom he loves. His love does not leave us in the position of sinners. He calls sinners to repent, forgives them, and calls them to change their ways.

Old Testament

Ezekiel 18:21–24 (ESV)

21 “But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die.

22 None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live.

23 Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?

24 But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die.

Isaiah 55:7 (ESV)

7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

New Testament

John 3:16 (ESV)

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Matthew 9:13 (ESV)

13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Luke 6:32 (ESV)

32 “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.

God does not love only those who love him.

Romans 5:8 (ESV)

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Luke 5:32 (ESV)

32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Luke 15:7 (ESV)

7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Conclusion

For these reasons, I consider the saying “God hates sin but loves the sinner” incorrect and inconsistent with biblical teaching. It separates sin from the sinner, which is itself contradictory. It may give believers and unbelievers alike the mistaken impression that, because God loves sinners, he has no response to what they do. They can therefore remain comfortably in their sins.3

The Bible teaches that God loves every person in the world. He does not want us trapped in sin and was willing to sacrifice his own Son to redeem us. God does indeed hate sin and those who commit it, because sin brings destruction and harm, the opposite of love. He therefore does not accept our continuing in sin.

God detests our sinning. Through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, he saves sinners in order to lead them out of sin, whether before or after they become disciples. Scripture says that God is patient and kind, but that does not mean his kindness and patience have no limits. Patience that continues indefinitely would no longer be patience; it would mean an inability to become angry or an absence of standards. That is not the God Scripture describes.

On the other hand, we do not need to live in constant dread because God detests sin and we repeatedly experience weakness:

Proverbs 28:13 (ESV)

13 Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

1 John 1:5–10 (ESV)

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

God understands our weakness and has compassion on us. As we learn to love him more, we sin less, just as we do not want to hurt the people we love. He truly loves us and is very willing to forgive us when we repent and turn back to him.

Familiar Christian Sayings: A Biblical Examination

If you have another question about the Bible or faith, you can ask it here.

Unlike sayings that actually occur in Scripture, such as “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35) or Jesus’ instruction to treat others as we would want them to treat us (Matthew 7:12). 2: Scripture contains several lists of sins: 2 Timothy 3:1–5; Galatians 5:19–21; Romans 1:29–32; 1 Timothy 1:9–10; 1 Corinthians 6:9–10; 1 Peter 4:3; Colossians 3:5, 8–9; and Ephesians 5:3–5. 3: Romans 6:1–2 rejects the idea that we should continue in sin so that grace may abound: those who have died to sin cannot go on living in it. ↩

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