God's Love is Not Void of Hate

Recently I've come to know, painfully, how very precious and needful is Christian community. We desperately need each other. Perhaps some more than others, nevertheless, our strength increases in uniting with others. On this thought as well, I have come to know that our strength is in separation from the world, for our unity with Christ involves both our detachment from the world and our attachment to Him. It involves the repudiation of the things of the world and a cleaving, embracing to the things of Christ. The love of God is not void of hate. "Christ hated sin," (Faith and Works 115), and those who receive him will also hate sin and iniquity. In this case "hate" is not a word strong enough to convey the correct thought. There will be enmity for sin. God placed enmity between the serpent (temptation and sin) and the woman (the Church) after the Fall and He wants to restore this enmity in the heart of every man, a hate for sin and wickedness. Mistaken love permits selfishness and sin in another but God will not and cannot permit sin and selfishness to be retained in the heart of His child. He will write in the heart of man His law of love which will lead man to exalt righteousness and goodness and in so doing he will cut against and oppose wickedness and unrighteousness.