John Murray on the difference between God's hatred and man's hatred

[clawrence9008]

"We must not predicate of this divine hate those unworthy features which belong to hate as it is exercised by us sinful men. In God's hate there is no malice, malignancy, vindictiveness, unholy rancour, or bitterness. The kind of hate thus characterized is condemned in Scripture and it would be blasphemy to predicate the same of God. But there is a hate in us that is the expression of holy jealousy for God's honour and of love to him (cf. Psalms 26:5; 31:6; 139:21, 22; Jude 23; Rev. 2:6). This hate is the reflection in us of God's jealousy for his own honour. We must, therefore, recognize that there is in God a holy hate that cannot be defined in terms of not loving or loving less. Furthermore, we may not tone down the reality or intensity of this hate by speaking of it as 'anthropopathic' or by saying that it 'refers not so much to the emotion as to the effect.' The case is rather, as in all virtue, that this holy hate in us is patterned after holy hate in God."

-- John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans, vol. 2 (1965; repr., Grand Rapids, Mi. William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1980), 22.

 

[MW]

Hodge comments, "This passage [Mal. 1:2, 3], as well as the one quoted in Rom. 9:12, and just referred to, relates to the descendants of Jacob and Esau, and to the individuals themselves; the favor shown to the posterity of the one, and withheld from that of the other, being founded on the distinction originally made between the two brothers. The meaning therefore is, that God preferred one to the other, or chose one instead of the other. As this is the idea meant to be expressed, it is evident that in this case the word hate means to love less, to regard and treat with less favor."

Who has properly understood the issue?

1st, Paul's argument in Romans 9 is that divine love and hatred were not based on the good or bad that the children had done but on God's will or purpose, what we call His decretive will. This is not a moral judgment. We are to love the good and hate the evil. This is a moral judgment. It is patterned on God's holy law (preceptive will), not on His purpose (decretive will).

2nd, Reformed theologians call this hatred an anthropopathism, saying it is an effect of God's will and is not intrinsic to God. The reason for this is that the choice of the person is voluntary, not necessary. God decrees according to the freedom of His will. He was not bound to choose one and reject another.

Hodge was correct. Murray was incorrect. Later in his comments Murray was careful to place this hatred in the category of divine sovereignty and determination. This is the proper way to understand it.