Should I Hate Satan?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | Welcome back to the Ask Pastor John podcast
00:00:07.640 | with John Piper.
00:00:09.360 | Yesterday we talked here about Satan's very first impulse
00:00:12.840 | for sin and where it originated.
00:00:15.520 | Today Josh in Australia writes in with a short and simple
00:00:19.060 | but pretty profound question.
00:00:21.200 | And it's this, Pastor John, should I hate Satan?
00:00:25.800 | And does God himself hate Satan?
00:00:28.720 | How should we feel about Satan?
00:00:30.120 | Is hatred too strong?
00:00:32.920 | Let's begin as so often with a definition.
00:00:36.340 | I can't get anywhere without a definition.
00:00:39.040 | What exactly is hate or hatred?
00:00:42.600 | When we're considering love, it's the flip side, and hate,
00:00:48.500 | we need to remember that both of them are used
00:00:52.860 | in two fairly distinct ways.
00:00:56.100 | For example, love may mean being pleased
00:01:00.480 | with the loveliness and the beauty of something.
00:01:03.440 | So I might say, "I love that painting,"
00:01:06.220 | or "I love it when you treat your little brother that way."
00:01:10.240 | But there's the other kind of love,
00:01:12.880 | which regardless of whether the object is lovely
00:01:17.120 | or pleasing, chooses, desires to seek the benefit
00:01:23.920 | of the person or the thing that is loved.
00:01:26.840 | So Jesus requires that we love our enemies,
00:01:29.280 | and these enemies may be very unlovely and morally corrupt
00:01:32.880 | and extremely displeasing to us.
00:01:36.100 | So the second kind of love still holds.
00:01:38.820 | We treat them better than they deserve.
00:01:40.900 | We seek their good.
00:01:42.200 | It's the same way, flip it around,
00:01:44.000 | it's the same way with hatred.
00:01:45.520 | It can mean intense disapproval or dislike
00:01:52.000 | for what is evil or ugly or distasteful,
00:01:55.400 | as when I say, "I hate mushrooms," or "I hate abortion."
00:02:00.040 | But on the other hand, as with love,
00:02:04.600 | hatred can refer to an intense desire or choice
00:02:08.760 | that someone would suffer, would be judged,
00:02:13.760 | or that they'd be ruined or destroyed.
00:02:16.640 | So when we talk about hating Satan,
00:02:20.520 | I think it's right to say that we should hate Satan
00:02:25.520 | in both of these senses,
00:02:30.320 | and that God himself hates Satan in both of these senses.
00:02:35.280 | And there are at least two reasons why I say this.
00:02:39.320 | Number one is that the scriptures teach
00:02:42.040 | that God hates the wicked and the impenitent people
00:02:49.000 | in both senses.
00:02:51.800 | And the Bible also shows that there comes a point
00:02:55.800 | where we should properly join him
00:02:59.780 | in at least some sense of hating the wicked,
00:03:04.560 | as God is hating them in that way,
00:03:07.840 | not only being strongly displeased,
00:03:12.640 | but also in rare cases, willing their judgment.
00:03:18.880 | So that's the first reason.
00:03:19.960 | And the second reason I think he hates Satan
00:03:24.960 | in both those senses, and we should,
00:03:27.440 | is that Satan is beyond repentance.
00:03:31.360 | And so the desire for his conversion
00:03:34.000 | is never considered virtuous or even present in the Bible.
00:03:39.000 | So let me illustrate the point
00:03:42.120 | that's really controversial, I'm sure,
00:03:44.120 | that I'm arguing from God's hatred of people
00:03:47.400 | to his hatred of Satan,
00:03:49.080 | 'cause the Bible never says God hates Satan,
00:03:52.400 | but it clearly implies it, I think.
00:03:54.280 | So Hebrews 1:8 says that the Son of God,
00:03:58.060 | it says about him, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
00:04:02.320 | "The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
00:04:05.200 | "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness."
00:04:10.200 | So we know that God and his Son hate wickedness.
00:04:15.560 | Similarly, we, those who fear God,
00:04:18.960 | join him in the hatred of what is evil.
00:04:21.920 | The fear of the Lord, this is Proverbs 8:13,
00:04:25.240 | "The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil,
00:04:27.700 | "pride and arrogance and the way of evil
00:04:29.800 | "and perverted speech I hate."
00:04:32.800 | And Romans 12:9 says, "Abhor what is evil."
00:04:37.240 | And so it is with wicked and impenitent people,
00:04:42.060 | not just action.
00:04:43.220 | So we've just seen that we're supposed to hate action,
00:04:45.280 | 'cause nobody would disagree with that, probably.
00:04:48.380 | "The Lord may choose to set his face against evildoers
00:04:53.380 | "temporarily or eternally and do them no injustice.
00:04:58.860 | "He owes us nothing.
00:05:02.800 | "We deserve only punishment
00:05:05.680 | "because of the universal sinfulness of the human race."
00:05:09.160 | So we read, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated," Romans 9:13,
00:05:14.920 | or Psalm 5:4, "You are not a God who delights in wickedness.
00:05:18.960 | "You hate all evil doers."
00:05:22.680 | Or Psalm 11:5, "The Lord tests the righteous,
00:05:25.680 | "but his soul hates the wicked."
00:05:28.880 | Or Psalm 2:4, "He sits in heavens and laughs.
00:05:32.820 | "The Lord holds them in derision."
00:05:36.400 | So the Bible gives examples
00:05:38.880 | of not only God hating the wicked,
00:05:42.240 | but the psalmist themselves, the human writers,
00:05:45.280 | under God's inspiration,
00:05:46.960 | expressing the same hate of evil doers.
00:05:50.640 | These are sometimes called imprecatory psalms.
00:05:54.920 | And contrary to what I think,
00:05:56.780 | some Bible teachers say
00:05:59.240 | they're really not part of God's inspired word,
00:06:02.840 | and they were used and loved
00:06:05.840 | by people who didn't understand.
00:06:08.440 | But I say, "Well, wait a minute.
00:06:10.080 | "They were used and loved by Jesus and by Paul,
00:06:14.720 | "especially Psalm 69,
00:06:17.340 | "one of the most severe imprecatory psalms,
00:06:19.420 | "and both Jesus and Paul cited it as exemplary
00:06:24.120 | "and embraced it as part of what they thought."
00:06:26.720 | So we have, for example, Psalm 31,6,
00:06:29.420 | "I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols,
00:06:32.700 | "but I trust in the Lord."
00:06:34.360 | Or Psalm 119,113, "I hate the double-minded,
00:06:37.780 | "but I love your law."
00:06:39.320 | Or Psalm 139,21, "Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
00:06:43.240 | "And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
00:06:46.080 | "I hate them with utmost hatred."
00:06:49.560 | Now, some of these psalms
00:06:52.280 | may be expressions of God himself,
00:06:56.300 | or the Messiah, speaking through the psalmist.
00:07:00.440 | So these are like messianic psalms
00:07:03.160 | with the psalmist assuming the role of God
00:07:06.520 | or of the Messiah as he speaks.
00:07:09.020 | So we have to be very careful how to apply
00:07:12.600 | the right to pronounce judgment ourselves,
00:07:17.200 | that that aspect may be fitting for them
00:07:19.980 | and not always fitting for ourselves.
00:07:24.000 | So in the light of all these texts and others, I say,
00:07:27.600 | since Satan is the source and embodiment of all wickedness,
00:07:32.600 | God and the godly should indeed hate him,
00:07:37.960 | meaning both in the sense of intense disapproval
00:07:42.700 | and in the sense of intense desire for his judgment
00:07:47.700 | and dispatching out of history and out of influence
00:07:52.420 | into the lake of fire.
00:07:53.980 | And I think this is confirmed
00:07:56.100 | by the fact that Satan is beyond repentance.
00:07:58.900 | And never in the Bible is any thought
00:08:05.500 | of praying for Satan or wishing for Satan's conversion
00:08:09.160 | mentioned or considered virtuous.
00:08:12.800 | One of the reasons I think we're commanded in Romans 12, 9
00:08:17.140 | to abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good
00:08:21.240 | is that you really can't love the good without hating evil.
00:08:25.460 | In order to hold fast to what is good
00:08:29.240 | and cherish the good and want the good to prevail
00:08:32.840 | and want people to experience good,
00:08:35.740 | you must hate what is evil
00:08:38.180 | and you must hate the one whose heart is impenitent
00:08:43.180 | and the fountain of all evil.
00:08:46.780 | Not to hate an impenitent, evil fountain of evil
00:08:51.780 | is not to love the good.
00:08:55.420 | So yes, I think God hates Satan in both of those senses
00:08:59.720 | and I think we should too.
00:09:01.720 | - Wow, thank you Pastor John
00:09:02.840 | for thinking through this issue with us.
00:09:05.060 | And thank you Josh for the question
00:09:06.520 | all the way from Australia.
00:09:08.280 | You can keep up with the Daily Ask Pastor John podcast
00:09:10.640 | online or through our free apps.
00:09:13.060 | And for more information go to our online home
00:09:15.120 | at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:09:19.480 | There you can also send us questions as well.
00:09:22.960 | Well so many people in our generation
00:09:24.280 | seem to be saying that I'm keeping Christ
00:09:27.520 | but I'm leaving the local church.
00:09:30.000 | John Piper is back tomorrow to give us his thoughts
00:09:32.040 | on this trend.
00:09:33.160 | I'm your host Tony Ranke, I'll see you tomorrow.
00:09:35.520 | (upbeat music)
00:09:38.100 | (upbeat music)
00:09:40.680 | [BLANK_AUDIO]