Thoughts on Hatred

A Modern View on Hatred

“Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” – 1 John 3:15

As the passage above clearly states, hate is not something to be taken lightly. Yet, in today’s view, hate is an average part of life. Hate is normal. It is nothing to modern society. And, unless it is directed at you, you are to ignore it and say “That happens.”

In fact, the statements “I hate you!”, “I hate this!” and more seem to be a normal part of our speech. It is taken far too lightly, and must be looked on with more seriousness.

So, why do we hate? Well, one reason is that we are directing our anger to something that is acting against our will. We naturally believe that nothing must go against us and our desires, and when something does, we react with anger.

But the more serious (and specific) reason, whether or not most people know it, is our anger against God and his work. We are born with sin, so it only makes sense that, because sin is against God, we would also be against him. We get so taken with ourselves, our ideas, our plans and our wishes that we forget who is really in control. Thus, when something comes against us, we are always going to react with some sort of anger, disappointment, or even hatred (which starts with anger).

Now, not everyone lifts their arms in anger and yells out “I hate you God!”

There are many ways to hate God, as sad as that reality may be. For instance, if someone learns the truth of a matter and yells out “I hate this!” or “I hate this reality!” they are hating God’s work.

Because, when you hate the truth (facts, reality etc), you hate God.

“Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me'” (John 14:6).

And to hate is just as bad as murder (see the above verse). And how many murderers don’t kill in anger? The first death was murder, which was done in anger (Genesis 4:5-8). So, if we hate God, what does that mean?

Where does hate come from? Not to sound like a modern Psychologist but, it comes from within yourself (Mark 7:14-23).

The modern world has such a distorted view of hate (what it is, where it goes etc). There are two main views as to what hate is:

The first is that it is something that just happens. “People get angry” they say; “It just happens.” They simply believe that it is just another aspect of human life that really makes no difference to our everyday lives.

Then we have the second group, which says that hate is entirely wrong. They believe that there is never a reason to hate anything or anyone. “Hate is a sin” they say. They are the ones that say “God is love” the most often, and leave out his wrath the most often.

Now, the statement “God is love” is often tossed around as though it is small, and is often implied to mean that God does not hate anyone or anything. He is all happiness and joy, and anyone and everyone is his friend. This is dead wrong. Have they forgotten God’s wrath?

“Pour out Your indignation on them, And may Your burning anger overtake them” (Ps. 69:24, NASB). Will he not “…repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thes. 1:6-8, NASB)?

“These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power…” (vs. 9)

God’s wrath is throughout the Bible! (See also Ps 69:24, Luke 12:49, Isa 66:15-16, Ps 76:10… or better yet, read the whole Bible.)

Yes, God does hate (Rom. 9:13). So then one must wonder, why does it say “God is love”?

Most people nowadays go through the Bible and pick-and-choose the verses that fit their idea of what God is, and in doing so, they take the verses out of context. That is the case here.

The context of 1 John 4 is not “God loves everyone, no matter who you are or what you believe.” That contradicts the other verse in the Bible (Rom. 9:13), thus it cannot be true, because the truth cannot contradict itself, otherwise it is not truth. (And all believers know that what the Bible teaches is the truth.)

When one reads the entire book, they find that it also says “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

Well, that clearly means that God does not love anyone who loves the world. So, going with the other passages about God’s wrath, as well as the entire book of 1 John, one must come to the conclusion that this is not saying “God loves everyone, no matter who they are.” Nor does it mean “God does not hate.” It clearly means that we must love one another because he loves us (vs. 11), not because we deserve it or because we are good people (Rom. 7:24).

So now the question comes, is hate evil altogether? No. God is perfect, and cannot sin (1 John 2:29, 3 John 1:11, 1 Pet. 1:14-16). And if God hates, one is forced to ask “Is hate a sin then?”

After all, could not one say “If God hates, then it is not a sin, because God cannot sin!”? But God also loves, as do we. Yet we love that which we should not (a lot of the time), thus that is a sin, because our love is not directed where it should be (God), whereas God always loves perfectly. So the same goes for hate (John 12:25). When God hates, it is a perfect hate. Yet for us, “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good” (Rom. 12:9, NASB). We are to hate only what God hates, because our view of hate is not to be trusted. Yet God’s hate is perfect, therefore we trust Him, and only Him.