Articles
What Do You Hate?
Just as we abuse the word “love,” so we do with hate. We hate everything from broccoli to racism, from early morning alarm clocks to cancer that kills our loved ones. To the other extreme, some fear hate to the degree that they teach their children not to even use the word: “Now Susie, we don’t use the word hate, remember?”
Well, if Susie just said she hates her brother Charlie, then mom has a point. But if Susie had just seen a news report on a man who killed his own children, then Susie should perhaps be encouraged to vehemently hate such behavior and the devil who would perpetrate it. The point is, we must not abandon the concept of hate, but we must direct it properly.
Vine distinguishes hate in the following ways:
-
“Of malicious and unjustifiable feelings towards others, whether towards the innocent or by mutual animosity” (p. 292). Jesus speaks several times of the world’s hatred toward His servants (Matt. 10:22; John 15:18; etc.).
- “Of a right feeling of aversion from what is evil.” Paul had a hatred for wrong even when he was the doer of it (Rom. 7:15). Metaphorically, Jude refers to the act of saving others from their sins: “Others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh” (Jude 23).
The spiritual senses of a Christian should be so sharp that he understands the full ramifications of sin. Sin is rebellion toward God that results in the severance of fellowship. If uncorrected, this separation causes other mental and psychological ills that plague anyone who has lost touch with the thing that matters most in this world: connection with our Maker. This truth leads to abhorrence of everything – no matter how benign it may appear – that destroys a relationship with God and hinders reconciliation.
The opposite of such hatred is indifference, and indifference is where the world first tries to reach a compromise with godliness. In their book "After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the ‘90s," which became the official handbook on how to win acceptance of homosexuality, Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen explain their idea of desensitization:
Inundat(e) the public in a "continuous flood of gay-related advertising, presented in the least offensive fashion possible. If straights can’t shut off the shower, they may at least eventually get used to being wet. ... The main thing is to talk about gayness until the issue becomes thoroughly tiresome. [S]eek desensitization and nothing more. ... If you can get [straights] to think [homosexuality] is just another thing – meriting no more than a shrug of the shoulders – then your battle for legal and social rights is virtually won’” (cited in Kupelian, "The Marketing of Evil," p. 25-26).
Evil has a focused agenda, and it will push that agenda until others get weary of hearing and arguing about it. Those who are godly and principled may feel that resistance is futile, that they have other battles to fight, that whatever form of evil under consideration isn’t so destructive that we can’t live with it. So we throw in the towel. We compromise. Or worse, we begin to parrot the propaganda that has been used to justify a behavior that is vile or destructive. When I hear Christians argue that “homosexuality is no worse than any other sin” and use that belief to criticize strong opposition to it, my own conclusion is that they have been persuaded by the public relations machine.
Even more subtle than the first two definitions, Vine adds a third Scriptural use of the word hate: “Of relative preference for one thing over another, by way of expressing either aversion from, or disregard for, the claims of one person or thing relatively to those of another.”
This use explains the perplexing statement of Jesus: “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). The key term in Vine’s definition above is “relatively.” When we choose to honor one above the other, we are said to “hate” (relatively) the one not preferred. This is why Jesus says we cannot logically serve two masters (Matt. 6:24). Preferring the material runs counter to spiritual interests in serving God.
The exaltation of righteousness brings a corresponding hatred for evil, and that sentiment will lead godly people to resist and oppose it. The kind of broadmindedness that recoils from condemning wickedness is just the compromise Satan is looking for to gain further traction in the world.
