Many would say in answer to the question, does God love the wicked?, He loves the sinner but hates the sin. Some might also say, he loves the wicked but not with the same special love that he has for his people. This is, at best, a conclusion drawn from certain other Scriptures (such as Matt. 5:44-45, Ps. 145:9) rather than a direct statement from the Scriptures.
There are other Scriptures which explicitly say that God hates the wicked. You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, Nor shall evil dwell with You. The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity. You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man (Ps. 5:4-6). The LORD tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates (Ps. 11:5). The curse of the LORD is on the house of the wicked, But He blesses the home of the just (Prov. 3:33). Jacob I have loved; But Esau I have hated, And laid waste his mountains and his heritage For the jackals of the wilderness (Mal. 1:2-3).
God hates the wicked because he is of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on iniquity (Hab. 1:13). The two words behold and look in this verse clearly mean more than simply to look at. The Lord does consider and know about the wicked works that men do and will judge them accordingly. Therefore, the words mean to look at with favor, to regard at the very least with tolerance. The Lord is holy, and his holiness demands that he hate not only sin but the sinner himself.
The only possibility of favor and love from the Lord to us rests in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. His atoning blood shields us from the hatred and wrath of God and, in fact, merits love and favor for us.
But the wicked are not in him and therefore cannot receive anything but wrath from God.
The usual answer to this is that God commands us to love our enemies so that we may be sons of our Father in heaven who makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matt. 7:44-45). God gives many good things to the wicked: not only sunshine and rain, but many other earthly gifts, and frequently in greater measure than he gives to the righteous. He restrains his wrath to the point that the wicked say, God has forgotten; He hides His face; He will never see (Ps. 10:11). They despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance and longsuffering (Rom. 2:4).
But Matthew 5 does not say, Love your enemies because God loves them. It says, Love your enemies because God does good to them. The question is not whether God gives them good things. It is rather, what is his disposition towards them and what is his purpose in giving good things? Blessing is not in things. If it were, the poor and afflicted would have to say that God is not blessing them, while the rich, no matter how wicked, could claim blessing. Psalm 73 gives us the answer. He sets them in slippery places and casts them down to destruction. Their good things are, under the judgment of God, the means of their destruction. Thus, God’s removing the plagues from Pharaoh became occasions for Pharaoh to harden his heart. Of that Paul says in Romans 9:18, God has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
Some might still object, how can we do evangelism if we cannot say to the wicked, God loves you? If it is true that God loves them, then the wicked may rightly conclude that they are safe and may continue blithely in the way of their wickedness. An essential part of the gospel message is that God hates the wicked and will surely condemn them to everlasting torment if they do not repent.
Of course, we cannot say to a particular unbelieving person, God hates you. We don’t know who are the elect, those whom God has chosen and given to Christ. But we must say to him, God hates the wicked. If you do not repent, you will come to know that by bitter experience, perhaps now in this life, but for certain at the moment of your death.
God loves his people, his chosen ones, and he hates the wicked, especially those wicked who do harm to his little ones. We must not dilute the gospel with our human conceptions of a God who is not holy and righteously angry with the wicked every day (Ps. 7:11).