[blue jeans]

God doesn't hate people. He hates sin.

Yes, it is possible to love the sinner and hate the sin.

Don't believe me.... have you ever had one of your kids do something wrong?

[John O]

Malachi 1:2 I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,
3 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.

Now read my post #14 to Argee.

I believe that God has mercy for all men, that all men are called to repentence and can be saved, but that some men refuse to accept the grace and have become, through their own actions and choices, irredeemable. These men God hates. They have rejected Him (as Esau did) and He in turn has rejected them. I find no other way to explain Mal 1:2-3.

(Several of the commentaries I have access to lay this hatred at the feet of Esau as a race (edomites) and not as a person. The explanation still holds true. The Edomites rejected God, gave up their birthright as His children and practiced abomination.)

While I am certain that God grieves over each one of these (2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.) but still hates them for their choice.

(note that while Esau gave up his birthright and rejected God in the first book of the OT, it is only in the last book of the OT that God states his hatred for Esau. God gave Esau somehwere near 2000 years to repent and come back to Him but Esau never did)

Remember that biblical hate is not the opposite of biblical love. You can hate and love something at the same time.