“Hate the Sin, Love the Sinner” What Augustine Said That the Bible Refined
Credit where due. The phrase is not entirely without merit.
There’s a common phrase often used among Christians that doesn’t appear anywhere in the Bible.
This should immediately cause us some concern.
The concept has its origins in the works of Augustine, with others crediting it to Gandhi.
It reflects something true and important.
Sinners are still image-bearers, they are still loved by God, and they should still be pursued with the Gospel.
But, when the phrase is employed casually, it undermines the very intentions of its originator.
The Verses Nobody Reads
Psalm 5:5 — “You hate all evildoers.”
Psalm 11:5 — “The Lord tests the righteous, but His soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.”
These verses are almost always ignored. They contradict our tendency to create a God who is perpetually happy about everyone, no matter what their condition.
But, they are in the Bible.
And, they are true.
The Hebrew word translated “hates” in Psalm 11:5 is שָׂנֵא (śānēʾ): to despise, to detest with settled conviction. This is not impatience. It is not mere disappointment. Holiness does not shrug at defiance. It recoils from it.
Ignoring these verses does not make God more loving.
It makes Him smaller.
What the Phrase Actually Does
Used carelessly, “hate the sin, love the sinner” stops being theology and starts being a social platitude.
It reassures the unbeliever: God is fine with you. He just has one little thing He would like to kind of sort out.
But this misses the teaching of Scripture.
The unrepentant sinner and his sin are not separate categories before a holy God. He is not an innocent man trapped by unfortunate behavior. He is a willing rebel who loves the darkness and chooses it daily.
Romans 1:32 is direct: “Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”
That is not a description of someone who needs reassurance.
That is a portrait of someone who needs a Savior.
The Two Truths the Bible Actually Holds
Scripture holds two truths in tension that the popular phrase collapses into one.
Certainly, God loves the world in the sense of common grace.
Matthew 5:45: “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
But… God also has a settled wrath toward the unrepentant.
John 3:36: “Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
The Greek word translated “remains” is μένει (menei): present active indicative. It’s not that the wrath of God is coming someday. It already rests on the one who has not believed.
Right now.
This moment.
Paul Washer has argued consistently that a Gospel which softens God’s wrath against sin does not produce genuine repentance. It produces a comfort that was never offered.
The Radical Revelation
Sin is not an abstraction that can be cleanly separated from the sinner who loves it, chooses it, and refuses to abandon it.
God’s love for sinners is what sent His Son to absorb the full weight of His wrath in their place. That is not a greeting card sentimentality. It is the most terrifying and glorious transaction in history.
When Christ cried from the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” He was not reciting a psalm for effect. He was receiving the full judicial weight of God’s wrath against sin so that those who repent and believe would never have to bear it themselves.
That is precisely what the phrase loses when used without precision.
What This Means for How You Evangelize
When we strip wrath from the message, we strip urgency from the hearer.
A man who believes God is basically fine with him has no reason to flee. He has no fire to escape, no debt to pay. He simply has a mildly disappointed Father who would like him to do better.
That is not the Gospel.
That is moralism dressed in evangelical language.
The true Gospel offers something incomparably greater: a God so holy He can not overlook even one sin, and so merciful He sent His Son to bear every sin for those who repent and believe.
Both truths are necessary. Remove either one and the message collapses.
The phrase “hate the sin, love the sinner” is not wrong. It’s just dangerously incomplete.
A God with no wrath produced a cross with no purpose.
If the wrath was not real, neither was the rescue.
To His Glory,
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