Hater; How To Love People Like God and Hate…

Learn to become a hater of your sinful nature. After all, you should “hate the evil”, that is hate sin. And “love the good” [Amos 5:15]. This is my testimony of how prayer helped me become a hater of sin.

Sin Nature Hater

Human nature hater: learn to hate YOUR sin

“I am a hater“, a phrase that is nothing to brag about when used in today’s terms. Relax, hopefully, I have your attention, to state this correctly, I am a human nature hater. To say it in another way, I hate the human nature, the sinful nature of humans. Hatred of other people is NOT okay in God’s eyes. In Matthew 5:44 Jesus says “love your enemies” (KJV) and in “Have love for those who are against you, and make prayer for those who are cruel to you” (BBE).

1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 “And may the Lord make you to increase and excel and overflow in love for one another and for all people, just as we also do for you“. (AMP)

Don’t hate people

Please understand, that I am NOT referring to hatred of others or hating people; I need to make that very clear. Hopefully, you did not stop reading yet. Please follow me closely and pay attention to what I am saying so you do not get the wrong idea.

I hate the sinful nature of the flesh, my flesh, my human nature. There is a part of me—my flesh—that I hate. Let’s go to God’s word:

“For I know that in myself (that is, in my flesh,) no good thing dwells: for to desire what is right is present within me; but to perform what is right, this I cannot do”. Romans 7:18 (RKJNT)

Turn from wrong

In order to turn from the wrong way of doing things, you must hate it. Jesus said, in John 12:25, “He who loves his life shall lose it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it for life eternal.” (RKJNT)

If you love doing wrong it eventually is not wrong from your point of view. We are creatures of habit, we easily become comfortable doing what we desire ignoring God and what He requires. This behavior is best explained in Romans 1:18-32; let’s focus on verses 24, 28, and 32, but please read verses 18-32:

“People wanted only to do evil. So God left them and let them go their sinful way. And so they became completely immoral and used their bodies in shameful ways with each other.” Romans 1:24 (ERV)

[read Psalms 81:8-16 (11-12); Ephesians 2:1-3]

God does not like sin

“People did not think it was important to have a true knowledge of God. So God left them and allowed them to have their own worthless thinking. And so those people do the things that they should not do.” Romans 1:28 (ICB)

[Read Proverbs 1:7; 1 Corinthians 15:29-34 (34); 2 Timothy 3:1-9 (8)]

“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.” Romans 1:32 (ESV)

[read Psalms 50:16-23 (18 and 22-23); Luke 11:45-54 (48); 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13 (13:6)]

Love God and people

God’s word teaches us to love God and humans without prejudice of any form [read 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Galatians 5:7-15 (13-14); 2 Peter 1:5-11 (7-8); 1 John 4:7-19 (7-16)]. That teaching is still and forever will be the way I live and feel. Since 1978, my life has been dedicated to studying the word of God.

One thing is very clear, every one of us commits acts that are against God’s will. Romans 3:21-26 verse 23 “all have sinned” and 1 John 1:8 “If we say that we have no sin, we lie to ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (NLV) [read Ecclesiastes 7:20; Galatians 3:19-25 (22); 1 John 1:5-10 (8-10); James 3:1-12 (2)].

Paul explains it in Romans 7:14-25, notice his statement at the end of verse 15 “but what I hate is the very thing I do.” (RKJNT) [read Jude 17-23 (23); Zechariah 3:1-7 (3-5)].

Let Me Explain: I became a hater of my sin

I grew up in church; “Apostolic“, “holy roller“, “Jesus only” were some of the labels that defined our form of belief. At the age of 12 I started getting high—smoking weed—which led to pills, getting drunk, heroin, cocaine, and other illegal drugs. These were the things I hated:

• My absent father (we left him when I was three).
• We lived in the county housing projects.
• Living in a small town.

You see, I was full of negative hatred, my deepest hatred was being in a position of having to ‘ASK’ for anything (this will be covered in another document).

I gradually became extremely selfish, violent, cold-hearted, disrespectful, a womanizer, a small-time gangster/drug dealer, and a drug addict. My greatest love was getting high to the extent I would stay up for days at-a-time. Often not remembering my actions including where I had been. I left God completely out of my life, fortunately, God did not leave me or turn His back on me.

He constantly demonstrated His love for me, I was too blind and full of myself to see it. Of course, living this type of life has three ends: death, prison, or you get out (change); I chose to get out.

Life crossroads

For many—including me—we eventually come to a crossroad in life; I had to decide “do I want to continue down this path”? I had people on the street hustling for me, my constant companion was a .357 magnum loaded with hollow points. At this stage of the game, I needed to be completely hard-core or change. Today I realize God had spared my life many times; a few things that I am grateful for:

• escaping injury from many deadly automobile accidents always walking away without a scratch; most of the time I was not wearing a seat belt.
• one concealed weapons and a few drug possession arrests; the worst/longest sentence was a weekend stay at the county farm. There were times when I had drugs on me but I did not go to jail.
• drug overdoses; once considered dead and brought alive through prayer.
• afflicted with STDs multiple times from engaging in unprotected sex with numerous women.
• often mixing a variety of drugs (hallucinogens, speed, downers; I loved speed-balls).

God has been very good to me, I know I did not (and still do not) deserve His love and forgiveness.

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Learn to dislike your sin

A Changed Man: hater of sin

Have you been delivered from any of the sins listed here? [Read 1 Corinthians 6:9-11] Before my changed life, I loved getting high and partying, I was selfish and did not mind taking advantage of others. Now, I am a hater—I hate sin and its result, I hate lies, I hate murder, I hate abuse, and I hate all that is against the will of God.

But I love my fellow human, yes I love you, rich/poor, coffee/cream, gay/sad :-), crooked or straight; I LOVE YOU with Godly love.

Repentance and Change

Finally, I began to hate the sinful things I used to do, it was then that I began the road to repentance. The first thing was to redirect the misdirected hatred or anger. Hating my environment, father and status was not helping me, it was killing me slowly. A change in attitude, my thoughts, and the environment [also my associates] were much-needed.

For many years my mother, “Pett”, prayed for me, desiring that I would come to my senses and return to God. In other words, I needed to repent and change the way I was thinking and acting. She constantly reminded me that I needed to change, but I did not want to hear it. As soon as she mentioned God or the church, I would leave. True repentance did not happen until I grew tired of living in sin. When that time came, It was my mother (“Pett”), however, whom I called, at 2:00 AM, to pray with me.

Prayer worked

For 2 hours “Pett” talked with me and read God’s word, at the right time she said, “let’s pray”. I cried out to God like a little child asking—pleading for forgiveness, and He did. At about 4:30 AM, March 17, 1977, God restored me. That morning when I went outside, the world and everyone looked different. I knew God had delivered me from a $200-a-day drug habit and from living in sin. All desires for drugs, alcohol, and that lifestyle were gone through my repentant prayer in faith. [James 5:13-20 (15-16)] What a wonderful and gracious God!

Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, 15 and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

16 Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective. James 5:14-16 (WEB)

Human-Sin Nature Hater

You love what is right and hate what is evil. So your God has placed you above your companions. He has filled you with joy by pouring the sacred oil on your head. (NIRV)

Many today reject particular passages of Scripture because: “it is not showing love” and the Scriptures are “not inspiring or uplifting”. News flash Jesus made it clear that He came to shake things up, not only show love and be uplifting (see Matthew 10:32-39); “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” He went on to be more specific “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Psalm 45:7 (RSV)

Your choice

I do not intend to nor will I debate God’s word. Each one of us has the God-given right to choose, you can either believe God’s word or not. If you choose to only accept the part(s) that make you feel good, it is your choice. My job or assignment is to provide the scriptures and not my opinion or judgment, take it or leave it.

We are to hate the act or behavior and not the person; “hate the sin not the sinner”. I know some of you may say this is impossible; with God, all things are possible (Mark 10:27). We are to love the sinner but not the sin or sinful acts that they do. Or do you believe we should love sin also? We cannot forget Adam and Eve introduced mankind to the knowledge of good and evil, right and wrong {Romans 12:9-13 (9)}. They chose to sin!

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Sin Nature Hater – Conclusion

But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, 21 and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.

22 And you must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. 23 Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives. Jude 1:20-23 (NLT)

Love People the way God Loves

We should NEVER think we are better than others [read Acts 10:1-33 (5, 13-15 and 28-29); Romans 12:1-21 (3 and 16 {compare 1 Corinthians 4:6-13 (7)}]. In fact, we should be humble. In Philippians 2:3 “Think of others as better than yourselves” (NIRV) [read Luke 14:7-14; Ephesians 4:1-6 (2)]. Some tend to judge others by the way they live or by their actions/lifestyles.

Jesus said, according to Matthew 7:1-2, “Do not judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judged and criticized and condemned yourselves. 2 For just as you judge and criticize and condemn others, you will be judged and criticized and condemned, and in accordance with the measure you [use to] deal out to others, it will be dealt out again to you.” (AMP) [read Luke 6:37; Romans 2:1-16 (1-2) and 14:1-13 (3-4 and 10-13); 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 (3-5)]

It’s A Wrap

Like it or not I use God’s word to point you to the truth. I have learned to be a sin-nature hater, but a lover of all people with the love of God. So, yes, I am a hater of the sinful nature that is first of all within me and the sinful human nature of others, but I am also a lover of people. I preach, teach, live and write the truth to warn my friends to learn to hate sin but to love each other without prejudice.

My prayer is that you learn to be a hater of your sin in Jesus name and be blessed—♥ Tim.

Scriptures to read and study:

Matthew 5:38-48 (44); Luke 6:27-37; 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13; Romans 7:13-25 (15 and 18-20) and 1:18-32 (24, 28 and 32). Proverbs 1:7; 1 Corinthians 15:29-34 (34); 2 Timothy 3:1-9 (8); Psalms 50:16-23 (18 and 22-23); Luke 11:45-54 (48). 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13 (13:6) and 13:1-13; Galatians 5:7-15 (13-14).

2 Peter 1:5-11 (7-8); 1 John 4:7-19 (7-16); Romans 3:21-26 (23); Ecclesiastes 7:20; Galatians 3:19-25 (22). 1 John 1:5-10 (8-10); James 3:1-12 (2); Jude 17-23 (23); Zechariah 3:1-7 (3-5); 1 Corinthians 6:1-11 (9-11); James 5:13-20 (15-16). Psalms 45:6-9 (7); Romans 12:1-21 (focus verses: 9-13; 3, 9 and 16).

1 Corinthians 4:1-13 (3-5 and 7); Acts 10:1-33 (5, 13-15 and 28-29); Philippians 2:1-4 (3). Luke 14:7-14; Ephesians 4:1-6 (2); Romans 2:1-16 (1-2) and 14:1-13 (3-4 and 10-13). Psalms 81:8-16 (11-12); Ephesians 2:1-3; Proverbs 6:12-19; 16:27-30. Isaiah 59:1-8; Hosea 4:1-3; Romans 3:1-18.

Related studies/lessons/snacks for further Spiritual growth:

Spiritual Attitude; The Right Mindset Is “I Can Do” – an estimated 23-minute read.

To Handle Adultery, You Need To Forgive, Not Divorce – an estimated 6-minute read.

Slander; An Act of Hate and Not of Love – an estimated 24-minute read.

Animosity; The Best Cure For This Hatred Is Love – an estimated 14-minute read.

Changed Life: Experience Your Best Using God’s Free Gift – an estimated 14-minute read.

See what is available on the Sound Truth Ministry website.

Copyright information:

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(AMP) Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org) || (ERV) Taken from the HOLY BIBLE: EASY-TO-READ VERSION © 2001 by World Bible Translation Center, Inc. and used by permission. || (ESV) Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. || (ICB) Scripture taken from the International Children’s Bible®. Copyright © 1986, 1988, 1999 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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(NIRV) Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version®, NIrV® Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. www.zondervan.com The “NIrV” and “New International Reader’s Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™ || Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. || (RSV) Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.