[Lighthouse]

Originally Posted by Christian_Nerd

Yeah, I kinda' think there might be different levels of sin, but I'm not 100% sure, though. But I don't believe that God hates sinners; I think He hates the sin, not the sinner. The way I look at the verses you have given is like this: When God speaks of hating men for wickedness and stuff like that, I look at Luke 14:26 which says, "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." God does not want us to hate our families; He is merely telling us that our love for Him is to be so much greater than our love for our families that, in comparison, our love for our families looks like hate. I think God was saying that His love for Christians is so much greater than His love for sinners that, in comparison, His love for sinners is look at as hate.

Well, seeing as how both passages are from the OT, I'm pretty sure Christians didn't enter into the equation.

But how can you use this idea when the word "abhor" is used, as it was in the Proverbs passage?

Though I do agree with you that said figure of speech was used throughout, even by God, and especially in the passage you mentioned in Luke.

Psalm 139:19-22 is another interesting passage on the subject, though. What do you think David meant?