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What Does The Bible Say About Hate?
August 17, 2019

Two weeks ago in my hometown of El Paso, Texas, a person who drove more than ten hours opened fire in a Walmart that I have shopped at many times. In an online posting minutes before the attack, hate was the root cause. We live in a time where hate is confused with anger. There are no words I can write to comfort those who have suffered so much. I won't use this study to attack or defend people on either side of the American gun control debate. I'm also not using this study to attack or defend people on either side of the American immigration debate. I believe all people, including people with whom I have significant religious, political, and philosophical differences have the right to their opinions and to fully live their life with no fear of hateful acts and I expect the same in return. I also know that what I write may be offensive to some. That's why I believe what I believe and encourage you to believe what you believe. That's why I include in every study I write a line that reads, "To all who believe differently, I also extend peace and love." I do think it is proper to consider hate and anger, because before somebody commits a hate crime or acts in anger, there is first that thought of hate or that thought of anger. For this week and next, I want to write about hate and anger, to show some of what the Bible says on these topics. It's my hope that by better understanding hate and anger we might be able to prevent other communities from enduring the suffering found in my hometown. The Bible does show us one useful purpose for hate, and it is summarized in the book of Proverbs. We are told to revere or worship God, we will hate evil which is listed as pride, arrogant thoughts and actions and living a life on the path of evil. We will also be mindful of the words we use and not have a potty mouth. Killing any innocent person is a sin and by definition an act of evil. For any who are suffering and feel hate, it is OK to hate the act of evil. Use that hatred to bring good to light. Do not hate the person who perpetrated the act of evil, lest you also commit an act of evil.

Proverbs 8:13
The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.

The shooter came to rid our community of Mexicans. When I travel, I am proud to tell people in El Paso we think of Mexican food as food and some mighty good home cooking. If I didn't like living in a border community with its multicultural flair, I would have moved. I've been here for nearly forty years and my gut tells me if I move it will be because of very high property taxes. Political boundaries do not change the fact we are all God's children and brothers and sisters. The Apostle John tells us that if we hate our brother or sister, and there is no greater display of hate than murder, we walk in darkness, or evil, and are blinded by that darkness.

1 John 2:10-11
He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

If we cannot love our brothers and sisters who we can see, John asks how is it possible we could pretend to love God whom we cannot see. John concludes by telling us of the new commandment from Jesus that we must love our brothers and sisters in order to love God. Any person who hates another person for any reason cannot love God. When we are confronted with evil, hate the act of evil, not the person.

1 John 4:20-21
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

Murder is the ultimate act of hate, and as John writes an act committed by a person who cannot love God. The Bible reminds us in order to revere or worship God we are to hate evil, meaning the act of evil, and never a person. For any who are suffering and feel hate, it is OK to hate the act of evil. Use that hatred to bring good to light. Do not hate the person who perpetrated the act of evil, lest you also commit an act of evil. Next week we will look at hate's younger sibling, anger.

All verses are from the King James Version.
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