Is it Righteous to Hate?
Jesus said, "If a man come unto me, and
hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and
children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and
his own life also, he cannot be my disciple"
(Lk.14:26). By this, Jesus did not
mean that we should hate our relatives as men
think of hatred. It is evil to hate anyone, as
ordinary people understand hatred to be. By
saying that all who follow him must hate their
dearest of kin, Jesus meant that in comparison
to devotion to him, our devotion to others
must become as hatred. There is no "second
opinion" necessary in God's kingdom. His
counsel is always the only counsel; His word is
the only law.
Men who have not been given the grace to
hear the call of Christ cannot understand.
They do not interpret our love for God as
being love for God; they see it only as hatred
of them. And until God touches them with His
love and righteousness, they cannot imagine
what we have experienced. Such an exclusive
devotion makes no sense to them. It seems
unreasonable.
"The natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness unto him; neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned."
1Cor.2:14 Yes, those who have
experienced God's touch are ofttimes transfixed
upon Him, and are driven by an unseen force
to pursue relentlessly His ways, to know and
to please Him above all else. Such an humble
dedication is mistaken by men for hatred,
basically because it leaves them - their
opinions and their wills - out. They sense
that we have consigned them to a position of
inconsequential influence and - especially if
they are close relatives - it hurts them. What
they cannot comprehend is that not only are
their wills and opinions left out but ours are,
too! Our own opinions and will are as
inconsequential to us as theirs are.
When one man despises another in this
world, he refuses to respect his will; and when
you dearly love God, you do generally the
same thing: you refuse the will of man,
including your own. Nothing of man is allowed
in God's way of holiness. Remember, Jesus
said the one who followed him must hate "his
own life, also." So, in comparison to our love
for Jesus, our love for self and others must
become as hatred.
An essential element of righteous hatred is
that one must be set free to feel it. It is not
a hatred that is bitter; it is a hatred that is
clean and sweet. I love to feel the hatred of
God. There is safety in it. There is love in
it. Perfect hatred and perfect love are two
sides of the same coin. They always go
together. Perfect hatred will inspire a man to
do precisely what perfect love will inspire him
to do.
It is not possible for any man to
understand these words unless God has
already touched his heart. This simple truth
will seem no more than foolish, religious babble
to any man's natural mind. When we
understand that, we can sympathize and have
patience with those who think we have "gone
off the deep end" with our pursuit of the
things of God. They can think nothing else
unless God helps them.
When God said "I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau" (Mal.1:2-3), the emphasis was on
God's choosing Jacob over his elder brother Esau. Similarly, when Jesus told his followers that
they must hate their relatives, he was emphasizing that we are always to choose God's ways over
theirs; indeed, we are always to choose His way over our own. God did not hate Esau with a
malicious hatred ("God is not a man"); nor are we to hate others and ourselves with a malicious
hatred. God was good to Esau; He made him rich and blessed him with many children. But He
chose Jacob to carry on the work of faith that his grandfather Abraham had begun. Only in that
regard was Esau hated and Jacob loved.
What a fearful thought it is, though, to be hated by God, the way God hates; that is, for Him
to choose others to bless instead of us, and to leave us alone! When God hates, He ignores. He
leaves the one He hates to go his own way.
This is in large part what the Spirit of Christ meant when, speaking through David, he said, "I
hate every false way." He meant that he chooses none of the ways that are of man or of the devil.
"All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in
them" (Prov.8:8). Jesus has no part with any false way. That is really hating evil. While
here, Jesus's hatred was not expressed with ranting and raving at false doctrines and ungodly
religious activity. Though he rebuked the hypocrisy of God's people, Jesus is never recorded to
have "preached against" the major false religions of his time, the Mithratic worship of the Roman
soldiers, the Zoroastrianism of the Persians, the Olympians of the Greeks, etc. He merely had
nothing to do with those unordained religions, teaching and doing only what his Father told him
to do (Jn.6:38; 8:28). That is the "perfect hatred" of evil mentioned in Psalm 139:21.
It was not in vain that Christ warned us to "serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with
trembling" (Ps.2:11). You remember very well the years you confidently worshipped God with
singing and praise, only to learn that some of what you were thinking about God had been wrong
all along. God did not condemn you during that time for your ignorance; He accepted your worship
and fed you until you were able to receive purer doctrine. And when He did show you that purer
way, He expected you then to hate the false doctrine you held before, as He had hated it all along.
He expected you to hate the erroneous ways that you spoke and worshipped before, as He had
hated them all along. He expected you to forsake them and choose His revealed ways.
It was at this point that the famed "Charismatic Movement" of the 60's and 70's miserably failed.
During that brief and pleasant revival of spiritual life, those who received the baptism of the Spirit
were taught to return to the dead denominations from which they had come, when they should have
been taught to flee from those spiritual cesspools. They had to hate (ignore) their various brands
of Christianity to receive the holy Ghost, but then they were commanded by leaders of the
movement to return to those places: in effect, stop hating as God hates, and return to those
deathtraps. As a result, the whole movement withered and became nothing more than a confused,
contemptible mass of contradictory teaching.
God began that time of wonderful refreshing when He by-passed the dried-up pentecostal
denominations, who since the Azusa Street revival at the turn of the century seemed to have a
virtual lock on who received the Spirit. It appeared that if a person became hungry for God, that
person had to leave his denomination and find a pentecostal meeting to be filled with the Spirit,
because anyone filled with the Spirit was persona non grata in the established congregations of
Christianity. And those people were rightly expected by leaders of the pentecostal groups to
remain with those who were of like faith. That is why pentecostal denominations survived longer
than the "Charismatic Movement" did. But as those pentecostal groups returned, step by step, to
Christianity's ways of worship, as their hatred of man's ways died, they became just another
deadened part of Christianity, and God by-passed them altogether to reach hungry souls, resulting
in the "Charismatic Movement": people from all parts of Christianity - and from outside it -
receiving His new-birth baptism without attending established pentecostal steeplehouses.
If they could only have understood it! Pentecostals were being told by God, "You have become
just something else for my people to hate (come out of and ignore), just as your fathers had to
hate (come out of) the old-line denominations in their day to receive My blessing." You see, the
call of God to come out of Christianity is a call to hate it as He hates it, not with sarcasm and ill-
will, but by ignoring it and choosing Him. Nearly all Christians and non-Christians alike
misunderstand the choice we have made, and they suspect that we who have chosen God's way hate
them. And in a way, God's loving way, they are right.
The ones who love God are put in a difficult position in this wicked world. Being constantly
misunderstood, we regularly have to make difficult decisions. If we choose one way, men will hate
us with their brand of hatred but God will love us; if we chose the other, God will hate us (choose
others for His blessing) but men will love us. Faced with this challenge, the wise virgin prefers
to exercise the hatred of God rather than the hatred of men, and to receive the hatred of men
rather than the hatred of God.
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