The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Hate

Can a Christian "hate" others in a righteous manner? For example:<br><br><blockquote>Ps. 26:5 "I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked."<br><br>Ps. 31:6 "I have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I trust in the LORD."<br><br>Ps. 139:21,22 "Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies."</blockquote><br><br>How do we, as Christians, do this, in light of Christ's command to "love thy enemny"?<br><br>Basically, what are the Biblical definitions of "hate" and "love," and how are Christians to practice them?

I'd guess--and this is only a guess--that the answer has to do with our intentions as they are submitted to God. <br><br>You must love your enemy, you can feed him and do what is needful to heal and value the image of God that, evil as they are, they still in some manner reflect. You must desire their salvation. You must try to do whatever gets them closer to Christ. The command to love our enemies is the basis for such institutions as the Geneva Convention. The command to love our enemies is the distinctive of the Christian in battle. No other faith is like the Christian's in wartime. To desire mercy when there is life and therefore still a chance for repentance, to me, is a great sign of godliness.<br><br>You can hate sinners, hate their intentions to defy God, hate their evil plans, hate their defiance of the Almighty, hate their destruction of all that is godly and good. You can work to thwart their ungodly plans. You can, with the sanction of the state, kill them in battle or in self defense, or through capital punishment. You can desire justice for them, as is shown by David in his imprecatory Psalms; the desire for justice is a godly desire. You can hate, most of all, Satan who is their slave-master.<br><br><br><br>

Hi Eleanor,<br><br> Great answer! I think you expressed this dual subject very well, they do go hand in hand!!!!!!!!!<br>Thanks!<br><br>In His Hands,<br><br>Ruth

Thanks!

I remember being perplexed by certain verses in Psalm 139 years ago before I knew anthing about Reformed doctrine. One day I got out The Treasury of David we had inherited from my Father-in Law to see Spurgeon's take on those hard verses and for the first time it made sense to me. I've loved Spurgeon ever since. [img]http://www.the-highway.com/w3timages/icons/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile[/img]<br><br>Susan<br><br><center>19 Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God! Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men.<br> 20 For they speak against You wickedly; Your enemies take Your name in vain. <br> Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? <br>22 I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.<br> 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; <br>24 And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.</center><br><br><br><blockquote>Verse 19. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God. There can be no doubt upon that head, for thou hast seen all their transgressions, which indeed have been done in thy presence; and thou hast long enough endured their provocations, which have been so openly manifest before thee. Crimes committed before the face of the Judge are not likely to go unpunished. If the eye of God is grieved with the presence of evil, it is but natural to expect that he will remove the offending object. God who sees all evil will slay all evil. With earthly sovereigns sin may go unpunished for lack of evidence, or the law may be left without execution from lack of vigour in the judge; but this cannot happen in the case of God, the living God. He beareth not the sword in vain. Such is his love of holiness and hatred of wrong, that he will carry on war to the death with those whose hearts and lives are wicked. God will not always suffer his lovely creation to be defaced and defiled by the presence of wickedness: if anything is sure, this is sure, that he will ease him of his adversaries. Depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. Men who delight in cruelty and war are not fit companions for those who walk with God. David chases the men of blood from his court, for he is weary of those of whom God is weary. He seems to say--If God will not let you live with him I will not have you live with me. You would destroy others, and therefore I want you not in my society. You will be destroyed yourselves, I desire you not in my service. Depart from me, for you depart from God. As we delight to have the holy God always near us, so would we eagerly desire to have wicked men removed as far as possible from us. We tremble in the society of the ungodly lest their doom should fall upon them suddenly, and we should see them lie dead at our feet. We do not wish to have our place of intercourse turned into a gallows of execution, therefore let the condemned be removed out of our company. <br><br>Verse 20. For they speak against thee wickedly. Why should I bear their company when their talk sickens me? They vent their treasons and blasphemies as often as they please, doing so without the slightest excuse or provocation; let them therefore be gone, where they may find a more congenial associate than I can be. When men speak against God they will be sure to speak against us, if they find it serve their turn; hence godless men are not the stuff out of which true friends can ever be made. God gave these men their tongues, and they turn them against their Benefactor, wickedly, from sheer malice, and with great perverseness. And thine enemies take thy name in vain. This is their sport: to insult Jehovah's glorious name is their amusement. To blaspheme the name of the Lord is a gratuitous wickedness in which there can be no pleasure, and from which there can be no profit. This is a sure mark of the "enemies" of the Lord, that they have the impudence to assail his honour, and treat his glory with irreverence. How can God do other than slay them? How can we do other than withdraw from every sort of association with them? What a wonder of sin it is that men should rail against so good a Being as the Lord our God! The impudence of those who talk wickedly is a singular fact, and it is the more singular when we reflect that the Lord against whom they speak is all around them, and lays to heart every dishonour which they render to his holy name. We ought not to wonder that men slander and deride us, for they do the same with the Most High God. <br><br>Verse 21. Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? He was a good hater, for he hated only those who hated good. Of this hatred he is not ashamed, but he sets it forth as a virtue to which he would have the Lord bear testimony. To love all men with benevolence is our duty; but to love any wicked man with complacency would be a crime. To hate a man for his own sake, or for any evil done to us, would be wrong; but to hate a man because he is the foe of all goodness and the enemy of all righteousness, is nothing more nor less than an obligation. The more we love God the more indignant shall we grow with those who refuse him their affection. "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha." Truly, "jealousy is cruel as the grave." The loyal subject must not be friendly to the traitor. And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? He appeals to heaven that he took no pleasure in those who rebelled against the Lord; but, on the contrary, he was made to mourn by a sight of their ill behaviour. Since God is everywhere, he knows our feelings towards the profane and ungodly, and he knows that so far from approving such characters the very sight of them is grievous to our eyes. <br><br>Verse 22. I hate them with perfect hatred. He does not leave it a matter of question. He does not occupy a neutral position. His hatred to bad, vicious, blasphemous men is intense, complete, energetic. He is as whole hearted in his hate of wickedness as in his love of goodness. I count them mine enemies. He makes a personal matter of it. They may have done him no ill, but if they are doing despite to God, to his laws, and to the great principles of truth and righteousness, David proclaims war against them. Wickedness passes men into favour with unrighteous spirits; but it excludes them from the communion of the just. We pull up the drawbridge and man the walls when a man of Belial goes by our castle. His character is a casus belli; we cannot do otherwise than contend with those who contend with God. <br><br>Verse 23. Search me, O God, and know my heart. David is no accomplice with traitors. He has disowned them in set form, and now he appeals to God that he does not harbour a trace of fellowship with them. He will have God himself search him, and search him thoroughly, till every point of his being is known, and read, and understood; for he is sure that even by such an investigation there will be found in him no complicity with wicked men. He challenges the fullest investigation, the innermost search: he had need be a true man who can put himself deliberately into such a crucible. Yet we may each one desire such searching; for it would be a terrible calamity to us for sin to remain in our hearts unknown and undiscovered. Try me, and know my thoughts. Exercise any and every test upon me. By fire and by water let me be examined. Read not alone the desires of my heart, but the fugitive thoughts of my head. Know with all penetrating knowledge all that is or has been in the chambers of my mind. What a mercy that there is one being who can know us to perfection! He is intimately at home with us. He is graciously inclined towards us, and is willing to bend his omniscience to serve the end of our sanctification. Let us pray as David did, and let us be as honest as he. We cannot hide our sin: salvation lies the other way, in a plain discovery of evil, and an effectual severance from it. <br><br>Verse 24. And see if there be any wicked way in me. See whether there be in my heart, or in my life, any evil habit unknown to myself. If there be such an evil way, take me from it, take it from me. No matter how dear the wrong may have become, nor how deeply prejudiced I may have been in its favour, be pleased to deliver me therefrom altogether, effectually, and at once, that I may tolerate nothing which is contrary to thy mind. As I hate the wicked in their way, so would I hate every wicked way in myself. And lead me in the way everlasting. If thou hast introduced me already to the good old way, be pleased to keep me in it, and conduct me further and further along it. It is a way which thou hast set up of old, it is based upon everlasting principles, and it is the way in which immortal spirits will gladly run for ever and ever. There will be no end to it world without end. It lasts for ever, and they who are in it last for ever. Conduct me into it, O Lord, and conduct me throughout the whole length of it. By thy providence, by thy word, by thy grace, and by thy Spirit, lead me evermore.<br> </blockquote><br><br>

Thanks alot, Susan!<br><br>That really spoke to me.

Thanks, Susan. That's helpful!

Kyle,<br><br>This is something Augustine wrote in "The City of God" which may be his thoughts on that question:<br><blockquote>For this reason, the man who lives by God's standards and not be man's, must needs be a lover of the good, and it follows that he must hate what is evil. Further, since no one is evil by nature, but anyone who is evil is evil because of a perversion of nature, the man who lives by God's standards has a duty of 'perfect hatred' [Ps. 139:22] towards those who are evil; that is to say, he should not hate the person because of the fault, nor should he love the fault because of the person. He should hate the fault, but love the man. And when the fault has been cured there will remain only what he ought to love, nothing that he should hate.</blockquote><br><br>As you can see, Augustine defined "perfect hatred" as hating the sin but loving the sinner.<br><br>Theo