Augustine (354–430) on “Perfect Hatred”

“With a perfect hatred did I hate them” (ver. 22). What is, “with a perfect hatred”? I hated in them their iniquities, I loved Thy creation. This it is to hate with a perfect hatred, that neither on account of the vices thou hate the men, nor on account of the men love the vices. For see what he addeth, “They became mine enemies.” Not only as God’s enemies, but as his own too doth he now describe them. How then will he fulfill in them both his own saying, “Have not I hated those that hated Thee, Lord,” and the Lord’s command, “Love your enemies”? How will he fulfill this, save with that “perfect hatred,” that he hate in them that they are wicked, and love that they are men? For in the time even of the Old Testament, when the carnal people was restrained by visible punishments, how did Moses, the servant of God, who by understanding belonged to the New Testament, how did he hate sinners when he prayed for them, or how did he not hate them when he slew them, save that he “hated them with a perfect hatred”? For with such perfection did he hate the iniquity which he punished, as to love the manhood for which he prayed.

Augustine, “Expositions on the Book of Psalms,” NPNF¹, ed. by Philip Schaff (Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson Publishers, 2004), 8:640. C. H. Spurgeon cites this in his Treasury of David. Nathaniel Hardy (1618–1670) also cites it in The First General Epistle of St. John the Apostle, Unfolded and Applied (Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1865), 195; or see here.

28. With a perfect hatred I have hated them. What is perfect hatred? It means, I hated the sins in them but I always loved your creation. To hate with perfect hatred implies that you neither hate the persons because of their vices nor love the vices because of the persons. This interpretation is confirmed by the next words, They have become foes to me; the psalmist shows that they are not only God’s enemies but his own as well. How, then, is he to do justice both to his own declaration, Do I not hate those who hate you? and to the Lord’s command, Love your enemies? How is he to do justice to both, except through a perfect hatred, whereby he hates everything in them that makes them sinful and at the same time loves them because they are human beings? Even in the period covered by the Old Covenant, when a carnal people was customarily kept in line by visible punishments, there was a man whose insight gave him kinship with the New Covenant. This was God’s servant, Moses. How could he have hated sinners when he prayed for them? [See Ex. 32:11–13] But, equally, how could he not have hated them when he killed them? [See Ex. 32:26–28] The answer must be that he hated them with a perfect hatred. In the perfection of this hatred he hated the iniquity he was punishing, but in such a way that he loved the human beings for whom he habitually prayed.

Saint Augustine, Expositions of the Psalms 121–150, ed. Boniface Ramsey, trans. Maria Boulding, vol. 20, The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2000), 321; Enarrationes in Psalmos, 139.28.