Question

Is "love the sinner, hate the sin" a biblical teaching?

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The phrase isn't in the Bible. It goes back to Augustine (around AD 424) and was made popular by Gandhi. The two halves it puts together are both biblical: love people, including enemies and wrongdoers, and hate what is evil. But some passages, especially in the Psalms, speak of God hating wrongdoers, not only wrongs. So the slogan is a fair summary of part of the Bible's teaching, not a quotation and not the whole picture.

What the text says

The wording is not scripture. No verse says "love the sinner, hate the sin." The closest early source is Augustine's Letter 211 (about AD 424). He told a community of nuns to correct one another cum dilectione hominum et odio vitiorum, "with love for persons and hatred of vices." Gandhi's autobiography made the modern form famous: "Hate the sin and not the sinner."

Both halves have strong biblical roots. On loving people: "love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18) and "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44). The New Testament grounds this in how God acts: "God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Jesus ate with people labelled "sinners" and said he came to call them (Mark 2:17; Luke 15:1–2). On hating evil: "Hate evil and love good" (Amos 5:15); "Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good" (Romans 12:9); love "takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth" (1 Corinthians 13:6).

The closest single verse is Jude 22–23: "Have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; and to still others show mercy tempered with fear, hating even the clothing stained by the flesh." It puts mercy toward people next to hatred of what defiles them. Leviticus 19:17 is similar: "You must not harbor hatred against your brother in your heart. Directly rebuke your neighbor." Hatred of the person is forbidden there, but naming the wrong is required.

Where the slogan gets more complicated. Some texts say God's hatred is aimed at people: "You hate all who do wrong" (Psalm 5:5); "the LORD… hates the wicked and those who love violence" (Psalm 11:5); see also Hosea 9:15. The Bible also speaks of God's wrath "remaining on" a person (John 3:36), and in the same Gospel of God loving the world (John 3:16). So scripture doesn't always keep "the sinner" and "the sin" in separate boxes. The Hebrew word for "hate" also often means "reject" or "love less," which is narrower than the English emotion (see the word notes below).

Where the Bible points the hatred. In the Gospels, Jesus warns hardest against harsh judgement of others' sins and calls for self-examination first (Matthew 7:3–5; Luke 18:9–14). John says that whoever "hates his brother is in the darkness" (1 John 2:11). Any biblical "hatred of sin" therefore starts with a person's own sin and can't become a cover for contempt toward others.

Where readers differ

It's a faithful summary of biblical ethics

The slogan puts together two commands that both run through scripture: love every person, including enemies, and abhor evil. God's own pattern supports it, since he loves people while they are still sinners (Romans 5:8) and yet does not approve of sin. Jude 23 and Leviticus 19:17–18 come close to stating the idea outright: show mercy to the person, rebuke or hate the wrong.

Romans 5:8Jude 1:22Leviticus 19:17Romans 12:9Matthew 5:441 Corinthians 13:6

True but incomplete, because scripture also speaks of God's hostility toward sinners

Psalms such as 5:5 and 11:5 say God hates the wicked, not just wickedness. Wrath rests on persons (John 3:36; Romans 1:18). Holders of this view say the slogan risks making sin sound like something outside a person rather than something a person does. They hold that God's love and his just opposition are both aimed at real persons, and that this is what makes grace remarkable.

Psalm 5:5Psalm 11:5Hosea 9:15John 3:36Romans 1:18Ephesians 2:3

Biblical in principle, but often misapplied in practice

Jesus aims most of his warnings about sin at the self-righteous, and he says to remove the log from your own eye first. Holders of this view say the slogan usually gets used about other people's sins, and that the people on the receiving end hear the 'hate' louder than the 'love.' The command most often repeated in the New Testament is simply to love one's neighbor, so they prefer to lead with that and leave judgement to God.

Matthew 7:1Luke 18:9Romans 2:11 John 4:20James 4:12Galatians 6:1

The words it turns on

  • שָׂנֵא שָׂנֵא (sane')

    To hate. It can mean real hostility, but it often means rejecting, not choosing, or loving less. In Genesis 29:31 Leah is 'unloved' (literally 'hated'), and in Deuteronomy 21:15 a husband has a 'loved' wife and an 'unloved' (literally 'hated') one.

    Drift: Modern English 'hate' mostly means a feeling of malice. In Psalm 5:5 and Malachi 1:3 the Hebrew is closer to settled rejection or opposition, which is why readers disagree about what 'God hates the wicked' means.

  • μισέω μισέω (miseō)

    To hate or detest. Like the Hebrew, it can mean 'love less by comparison' (Luke 14:26, 'hate his father and mother').

    Drift: Reading every use as an emotion of personal hostility misses the comparative, choice-based sense in many passages.

  • ἀποστυγέω ἀποστυγέω (apostygeō)

    To abhor or shrink from in disgust. It occurs only in Romans 12:9, where it is aimed at 'what is evil' (to ponēron), not at people.

  • ἁμαρτωλός ἁμαρτωλός (hamartōlos)

    Sinner. In the Gospels it was often a social label for people seen as outside Torah observance, such as tax collectors and the openly immoral, as in Luke 15:1–2.

    Drift: Today 'sinner' is often heard as a fixed identity applied to some people and not others. Paul uses it for everyone, himself included (Romans 3:23; 1 Timothy 1:15).

  • ἀγάπη ἀγάπη (agapē)

    Love understood as committed goodwill that seeks the other's good. It is defined by actions in 1 Corinthians 13:4–7.

    Drift: English 'love' is often taken to mean approval or warm feeling. Agapē can include correction (1 Corinthians 4:14) and 'takes no pleasure in evil' (1 Corinthians 13:6).

What the Bible doesn't say

The Bible never states this formula, and it never explains exactly how God's love and God's opposition toward the same person fit together. That is why traditions put the weight in different places. Jewish tradition has a well-known parallel. In the Talmud (Berakhot 10a), Beruriah reads Psalm 104:35, "May sinners vanish from the earth," as "may sins (chata'im) vanish." Her point is that the hope is for the wrongdoing to end, not the wrongdoers, and that people should pray for them to repent. Scripture also leaves open how much of "hating sin" is about inner attitude and how much is about outward action toward others.

Key verses

  1. Jude 1:22

    And indeed, have mercy on those who doubt;

    The nearest the Bible comes to the idea: mercy to people, 'hating even the clothing stained by the flesh.'

  2. Romans 5:8

    But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

    God loves people while they are still sinners. This is the theological root of 'love the sinner.'

  3. Romans 12:9

    Love must be sincere. Detest what is evil; cling to what is good.

    'Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.' The hatred is aimed at evil itself.

  4. Leviticus 19:17

    You must not harbor hatred against your brother in your heart. Directly rebuke your neighbor, so that you will not incur guilt on account of him.

    Forbids hating your brother in your heart, requires rebuke, and commands love of neighbor.

  5. Psalm 5:5

    The boastful cannot stand in Your presence; You hate all workers of iniquity.

    'You hate all who do wrong.' The main text that complicates the slogan.

  6. Matthew 5:44

    But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

    Love extends even to enemies and persecutors.

  7. Matthew 7:3

    Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye but fail to notice the beam in your own eye?

    Deal with your own sin before judging someone else's.

  8. Amos 5:15

    Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the gate. Perhaps the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

    'Hate evil and love good': moral hatred directed at evil.

  9. 1 Corinthians 13:6

    Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth.

    Love 'takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth,' so love and opposing evil go together.

  10. 1 John 2:11

    But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

    Hating one's brother is darkness, which limits any hatred aimed at people.

  11. Mark 2:17

    On hearing this, Jesus told them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

    Jesus came to call sinners, not to keep away from them.

Common points of confusion
"Love the sinner, hate the sin" is a Bible verse.
No verse contains this wording. It comes from Augustine's Letter 211 and was popularized in modern times by Gandhi. Jude 22–23 and Romans 12:9 come closest in idea.
Loving someone means approving of everything they do.
Biblical love 'takes no pleasure in evil' (1 Corinthians 13:6) and includes honest rebuke (Leviticus 19:17), though it is to be gentle (Galatians 6:1).
The Bible never speaks of God hating people.
Psalm 5:5, Psalm 11:5 and Hosea 9:15 do use 'hate' with people as the object. The Hebrew word often carries the sense of rejection, but the texts do say it.
Hating sin is mainly about opposing other people's wrongdoing.
Jesus tells people to examine their own sin first (Matthew 7:3–5) and warns against contempt for others (Luke 18:9–14). Hating one's brother is called walking in darkness (1 John 2:11).

Sources: Augustine of Hippo, Letter 211 (c. AD 424), section 11: 'cum dilectione hominum et odio vitiorum' · M. K. Gandhi, An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Part IV · Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 10a (Beruriah on Psalm 104:35) · Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (H8130, G3404, G655, G268, G26) · Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon, entry שׂנא · Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich (BDAG) Greek-English Lexicon, entries μισέω, ἀποστυγέω, ἁμαρτωλός · Berean Standard Bible (verse quotations)

Discussion

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