The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
Ecclesiastes 12:11-14

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
Matthew 5:43-46

Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
O men of blood, depart from me!
They speak against you with malicious intent;
your enemies take your name in vain.
Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with complete hatred;
I count them my enemies.
Psalm 139:19-22

The Nature of God

Who is God? Such a beautiful question; a beautiful mystery and a sword that cuts to the heart. We will never fully understand the power, the glory, the mercy, the justice, the totality of God’s attributes. The answer to this question is found in Scripture, the “sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”1 We must put aside preconceived notions of gods made in our own image as we study the Bible, and use Scripture as our final, infallible authority.2 What does the Scripture reveal about the nature of God, and how He regards His enemies?

God hates His enemies.

For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
evil may not dwell with you.
The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;
you hate all evildoers.
You destroy those who speak lies;
the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
Psalm 5:4-6

Do not be tricked by the ancient heresies, brothers and sisters. Jesus is fully God, in perfect unity with the Father and Spirit. We are not Marcionites, who claim Yahweh and Jesus are different divine beings, one wrathful, one merciful.3 Nor should we believe that in the Incarnation, Jesus “Emptied Himself of all but love.”4 Compare these wicked ideas to Revelation, with God’s holy wrath being poured out upon His enemies.5 For God pours out perfect judgement against the Great Prostitute, and He is exulted for His justice.6 Or look at the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, and the wrath Jesus proclaims upon the covenant breakers and the terror that will befall Jerusalem. For, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”7 This is the reality of how God views His enemies. But what of the Christian? How do we view our enemies?

Where are your Enemies?

The Christian has enemies; scriptures presuppose this. The enemies don’t only hate God, they also despise and abhor His people.

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
John 15:18-19

Yes, we are called to be at peace with all men, to bless those who persecute us, to repay evil with good.8 But passages such as this do not teach we do not, nor ought not, have enemies. Do not fall into this trap. All people have enemies. The Israelites were beset on all sides from pagans. They even had covenant breakers within their lands who hated God and His people. The Philistines, Absalom the Prince, the idol worshipers of the Golden Calf, the Amalakites, Abimelech the son of Gideon, the list is endless. Jesus spoke about “false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”9 We have enemies, brothers and sisters. Please, exam your life. Do you have enemies? Where are they? Do you pray for them?

Be weary, and examine yourself. To quote one of my pastors, “When no one in your life knows your beliefs, you aren’t in a good spot. And soon the Christian looks no different than an unbeliever.”

Be Humbled, Walk Carefully

So how do we Christians deal with our enemies? And what does this look like? For too long, I’ve seen wonderful, beautiful abstract commands and encouragements given to the people of God, so that we may walk rightly in accordance to the scripture, to be twisted into unbiblical descriptions.

Are Christians right to be angry at sinners? Yes!

Many may balk at this claim. Does not Christ call us to love our enemies? To turn the other cheek? What about returning evil for evil, is that not condemned? I will agree whole heartily with all of those teachings! Scroll up, I referenced those scriptures. But we take these true Biblical standards, and worm in pithy sayings to cloud and obfuscate Scripture. “Love the sinner, hate the sin.”10 Where is that reference? For there are examples of both God and faithful men within the Scriptures, of anger towards sinners!

I must clarify, please take heed. The anger I speak of is not the hatred as defined in Matthew 5:21-22. We are commanded not to murder, and that includes the heart. We are not to repay evil with evil, nor take vengeance into our own hands.

Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
Romans 12:17-19

The LORD would be right to strike down all His enemies with furious wrath, and proclaim just judgements. As God shows mercy, we also ought to show mercy. We will praise God for His holy judgements.11 Be warned, we are to imitate Christ and His great compassion, and not Jonah and his lack thereof. Be humbled, for we too were God’s enemies.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Romans 5:6-11

Be Angry, Yet Do Not Sin

Christians, Paul calls us to be angry, yet do not sin in his letter to the Ephesians. We are to not to let the sun go down on our anger.12 Notice, Paul does not deny anger, nor even condemn the anger here. And Paul shows a perfect example of his command in the letter of Galatians, a description for Paul’s prescription. Paul does not greet the Galatians thanking God like all of his other letters written to churches in his greeting. Rather, Paul rebukes the Galatians sharply, starting in chapter 1 verse 6. And later, after putting forward his case of the evil sin of adding the work of circumcision to the Gospel, Paul declares,

“You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!”
Galatians 5:7-12

Paul wishes for the Judiazers to castrate themselves. And there are many other examples of righteous anger. Moses was right to be angry at the Israelites and their pagan worship of the golden calf. Phineas slew the Israelite man who fornicated with a Midianite in the midst of the camp.13 In Jesus’ parable of the Talent, the Master is furious towards the lazy and wicked servant.14 And King David shows anger in Psalm 109 and 139 towards his enemies.

David is a perfect example of distinguishing between righteous anger and the vengeful hatred. Throughout his time praising and praying during his time of exile during the reign of King Saul, David does not take vengeance against Saul. Interestingly, David fails in this essential distinction between righteous anger and vengeful hatred himself, yet thankfully his hand was kept from bloodguilt. In 1 Samuel 25, David is slighted by the wicked and worthless man, Nabal. David gathers his men to slay Nabal, yet Abigail, Nabal’s wife, stops David from falling into sin.15

Do not be fooled. Reject the teachings that all anger is evil. What kind of a man would a father be without anger towards his son in sin? What kind of a woman would a mother be in never sharply rebuking her daughter? What kind of teacher shows apathy towards unruly students? What kind of coach allows insubordination by his athletes? What kind of boss is not furious when an employee cheats a customer?

And what kind of man would any of these examples be, if that anger is not paired with a great love? The unloving father does not show anger towards his son’s sins, rather, he responds in murderous hatred or lazy apathy, uncaring for his son’s soul. Why is our God angry at the sins of His people, all throughout the Old and New Testament? Because our God loves His people, which “shall forevermore endure: the Saints and Angels song!”16

But let’s think of a clear, tangible example for us to wrestle with. There’s a bull in the China shop; grab it by the horns, and wrestle it into submission. A Christian man, Charlie Kirk was murdered. Were you angered at that unrighteous act? Or did you suppress that emotion, thinking that “all anger is an evil sin?” Were you apathetic and uncaring, refusing to mourn with those who mourn? Did you allow the sun to go down in your anger, desiring wicked vengeance upon the enemies of God celebrating Charlie’s death? Or was there a cold-hearted belief deep in your heart, that “Charlie got what he deserved.”

Friends, take sins, whether unrighteous anger, a lack thereof, or gleeful celebration, and confess them at the foot of the cross. Be encouraged, that Christ came into this world to save sinners.17 We must wrestle with these difficult topics, rather than ignore them and allow sin to fester. Be angry, but do not sin.

“Be killing sin, or it be killing you.” – John Owens

  1. 2 Timothy 3:15 ↩︎
  2. Colossians 1:12-23 is potentially my favorite passage to learn of who God is. ↩︎
  3. Marcion of Sinope was a heretic who plagued the early Church in the second century. Here’s a short read regarding Marcionism. ↩︎
  4. “And Can It Be, That I Should Gain?” Charles Wesley, 1738. Such a lovely hymn, but this line is quite problematic for proper Trinitarianism. ↩︎
  5. Revelation 15-16 ↩︎
  6. Revelation 17:1-8 ↩︎
  7. Hebrews 10:31 ↩︎
  8. Romans 12:14-21 ↩︎
  9. Matthew 7:15 ↩︎
  10. I do not hold to the position that all short sayings and quips derived from Scripture are bad. Rather, they fail to convey the rich, comprehensive, theological truth(s) that they originally meant to summarize. ↩︎
  11. Revelation 16:1-7; 19:1-3 and Isaiah 24 are all passages we must wrestle with. These are examples where we give God glory for His judgement. ↩︎
  12. Ephesians 4:26 ↩︎
  13. Numbers 25:1-9 ↩︎
  14. Matthew 25:14-30 ↩︎
  15. 1 Samuel 25:23-34 ↩︎
  16. The Love of God, Fredrick M. Lehman 1917 ↩︎
  17. 1 Timothy 1:15 ↩︎