Meditations on Hate
As the apparent fourth turning swirls on, and particularly in light of the horrific recent murders of Iryna Zarutska and Charlie Kirk, social media has increasingly been filled with discourse reflecting anger, fear, blame, and cries for justice. Over the last few days, I have been chewing on hate, and what role - if any - this has in the life of a Christian.
Mainstream evangelical Christianity does not dwell much on this emotion. If it is mentioned, it is viewed negatively and perhaps preached against - and with good reason. Uncontrolled hate leading to cruel actions is clearly condemned in scripture and not reflective of our calling to imitate Christ. However, that is not the end of what scripture has to say about hate.
Firstly, hate itself is not a sin. God hates - see Zechariah 8:17. Jesus in Revelation 2:5-6 says Be hates the sinful works of the Nicolaitans. Our modern conception of God oftentimes strays to far in the direction of a comforting, loving Being - and to be sure, this is true. But we should be careful lest we forget what it means that He is Holy - He cannot abide sin, and the justice of His very nature demands that sin be punished. This is an important essence of the Gospel message itself. To those who reject Him and embrace sin, God is a being to be feared - He is a "dread warrior" (Jeremiah 20:11) and judge.
Obviously, we are but imperfect imitators of our Lord. Hate can easily, if allowed to fester and twist us, lead us down a path of bitterness, anger, and violence. But we cannot be overly binary in our thinking, and while there is certainly a ditch on either side, clearly there is a time and a place in scripture for even this emotion.
The Psalms are good example of this. Not only are there many Psalms of worship and praise, but many where hate of evil is presented as a virtue and even many where strong imprecatory prayers are employed against the enemy. See Psalm 25:5, 36:1, 119:113,116, 139:21-22. Psalm 97:10 commends us as follows: "O you who love the LORD, hate evil!" Proverbs 8:13 instructs us that "The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate."
To be certain, this does not mean we are called to hate people groups based on earthly characteristics or even necessarily hate individuals - but we are called to hate evil and the evil works done by evil doers. We should be repulsed by evil, including our own sin, and denounce it wherever it may rise. We should not tolerate evil among us. Our enemies should be called to repentance, but evil around us must not be abided.
It is also of note that our lives should not be marked by hate. This is not the defining feature of a Christian - rather, we should be marked by the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. One of those fruits, however, is self-control. As we hate evil, our hate should be marked by this virtue - it does not drive us to reactionary violence or senseless anger.
One passage of note occurs in Revelation. Jesus, in speaking to the church in Ephesus, is calling them to repent but does hold up one positive virtue in their favor. In Revelation 2:5-6, He says, "Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate."
Why is this important? How does this affect our lives now? I would argue that one reason we as a nation are fully deserving of God's judgement is that Christian men have stood silent far too long. In the name of tolerance and peace (and likely also in the face of the fear of man), we have stood by as our atrocities have multiplied. We have not called our nation to repent as sexual deviancy in the form of homosexuality and transgenderism have multiplied. We have stood silent as millions of babies are murdered by abortion. We have allowed for skewing of gender roles and the devil's sweet whisper of egalitarianism have ravaged our nation. We have not hated sin enough - to the contrary, we have abided it. The recent video of the father at the Phillies game comes to mind. Why didn't he defend his son from the belligerent women? Because he just "wanted her to go away." He chose the easy way out, the way of unruffled feathers and supposed societal approval. But we have abided sin too long.
Once again, this is not a call to violence. Scripture supports the right of self defense, but vengeance clearly belongs to the Lord (Revelations 12:19). God's wrath will come to bear on our enemies. Additionally, while there is a discussion to be had regarding primary and secondary means, we must remember that our battle is ultimately against the Evil One and not flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12). But if we continue to silently abide sin in our own lives, in our family, in our communities, our friends, our enemies, and our nation, then we will deserve every ounce of God's righteous judgement on our lives. Tolerance of sin is not a Christian virtue - it is condemned (Revelation 2:20). Instead, by the grace of God and in the power of His Spirit, let us truly hate sin and evil as He does and mortify it quickly. As the prophet Amos proclaims in Amos 5:15: "Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph." May the Lord have mercy on our nation.