“I just hate that,” I said.
“We don’t hate,” my teacher responded.
“Yes I do, I—”
“Ah,” she reprimanded again. “We don’t..” and left off, with me to fill in the blank. I got the idea. But even though I no longer used the expression (at least in front of my Kindergarten teacher), there were still things that I hated. I just found other ways of expressing it.
“I intensely dislike that!”
There is a certain ideology according to which hate has no place in human life, and which is bold enough to regard itself as moral enlightenment. Like all ideologies, it’s based more on wishful thinking than reasoned argument, and does not seek to persuade as much as to intimidate. We should like to think ourselves living in a world where there is no need to hate, where there is no need to fight. But is that really true?
The fact is, we live in a fallen world, and as surely as there is such a thing as good, there is such a thing as evil, whereby Paul admonishes us: Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil, cling to what is good (Rom. 12:9).
Notice how he combines love and hate in the same passage. If love is to be sincere, then it must be combined with hate, for no one may truly love the good without hating that which is evil. And Paul is speaking from a New Testament perspective! It’s not as though hate is just a part of Old Testament thinking that can be safely gotten rid of now that Christ has come.
“Did Jesus ever hate?” someone will say. Most assuredly he did, every bit as much as God himself is a hater of evil (read Revelation 2:6).
Why point all this out?
Certainly not to give a green light for hatred, especially in view of the fact that fallen man is notorious for directing his love and hatred toward all the wrong objects. Anyone who felt his heart leap at the notion that hatred is permissible is probably being guided by wrong motives, just as the man who always dreams of being a policeman is usually the wrong man for the job. The point is rather to strengthen those who find themselves conscience stricken and morally faint of heart. We are living in an age where certain falsehoods are not only tolerated, but positively promoted. Those who speak out against them are silenced, and those who tell bald-faced lies are rewarded with the social approval of their fellow man. The Psalmist was not unfamiliar with such corruption: Save, O Lord, for the godly are no more. The faithful have vanished from among the children of men. Everyone utters lies to his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. May YHWH cut off all flattering lips! (Ps. 12:1-3).
But while the Christian may justly hate evil, and while he may justly count the hordes of the godless his enemies, he is nevertheless commanded to love his enemies: You have heard it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven (Matt. 5:43-45).
Let us stand strong in our condemnation of that which is false and evil. But let us also follow the example of our Lord, who did not repay evil for evil, but overcame evil with good.
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