Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Making sense of "hate"

The culture despises hate. If you want to put someone under the jail, accuse them of a "hate crime." Have you ever pondered, "How is hurting or killing someone worse if we add hate to the motive?" The current movement in society is to stamp out hate everywhere it exists. If you don't denounce hate, then you are despised by everyone that matters. Yet, we use the word hate all the time in acceptable ways.
"I hate broccoli."
"I hate snakes."
"I hate Trump."
"I hate people that lie to me."
"I hate people that hate."

Also, if we condemn "hate speech," what do we do with the Bible?

Jesus once said, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and sister and brother, and yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." Then what about the hateful things He said about the Pharisees. He called them evil hypocrites and more.

Jesus expected to be hated. He says, "don't be surprised if the world hates you. it's because of me."

But then Jesus says, "if anyone says he loves God, but hates his brother, then he is a liar."

So what gives? Jesus seems to use the notion of hate is different ways. Why is "hate" so despised? Why is hate used to shame people?

The world has adopted the idea that hate means to despise. Hate is seen as the presence of a negative, such as the presence of great dislike. In the Bible the word hate was used as a comparative word. If I hated something, it just meant I loved it less than something else. Hate is then the presence of a higher positive. Hate is simply choosing one thing over another. It is not a negative motive.

For you, is hate a condemning judgment or is hate a prioritization?  Isn't it interesting how the world wants to take words and conform them to their own image. This is just one of many, many instances where making sense of the words of Jesus is beyond our flawed natural purposes.

So, when we say, "we want a world with no hate." What do we mean? .....

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