A Study of Hate
Part 1 of 3
Ecclesiastes 3:8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of
war, and a time of peace.
The wisdom of Solomon shines
brightly in his elucidations of good and evil, or the works of the flesh and
the works of the spirit. In this narrative known to us as Ecclesiastes the
dichotomies of nature’s are illuminated in his attempt to show the contrast
between paradise and eternal suffering.
A dichotomy defines a sharp
division of things or ideas into two contradictory parts, thus we have the
flesh and the spirit. Galatians
5:16 This I say then, Walk in the
Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh… Each element of the
dichotomies of life processes the ability to cancel out the other. One cannot serve God and the Devil, the same
as day cancels the effect of night, or love cancels the effect of hate. In a natural and imperfect world controlled
by the knowledge of good and evil, opposites exist as the works of the flesh
and the works of the spirit. Thus we
have the proliferation of this once forbidden knowledge of good and evil verses
the knowledge of God.
The knowledge of good and evil or
the knowledge of the world is founded upon the love and works of the flesh,
whereas the knowledge of God is founded upon the love and works of God.
Those who love God have a strong desire to be commanded by God. Galatians 5:16-23 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye
shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the
flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the
things that ye would… Now the works of
the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and
such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time
past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
The scripture list hatred hatred
as a work of the flesh along with a rather lengthy list of others vices, such
as Adultery and murder. The work of the
flesh was condemned by the Law of God, yet the Law was unable to control the
sinful nature of man once he had tasted of the forbidden fruit. Romans 8:3
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,
God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh: John 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated
me before it hated you.
Hatred is a powerful aphrodisiac,
it produces a psychological high and its addiction rate is higher than that of
drugs. The narrative of a drug addict will
draw others in and replicate itself,
thus creating an epidemic. The same
holds true with hate. Society has separated
itself into groups and each group hate the other. Hate filled rhetoric brings together those whose perception of hatred is blinded by the rhetoric and they rejoice
in the evil and attention produced by hatred.
Groups are often formed to combat hate, but,
again because of the lack of understanding of the nature of hate, these groups often
succumb to hate an become instruments of
hate. Humanity in his infinite wisdom often
creates laws to control or combat hate.
The application of these laws often produces a hatred more intense, more
profound than the hatred it sought to suppress.
Consider the war on prostitution, liquor and drugs as a measure of effectiveness
of man-made laws against the work of the flesh.
If it was because of what the law of God could not do, God sent his son,
how effective can the laws of man be?
What is this ungodly hate and why
is the world is so mindful of it? When
did this hate first rear its ugly head? Why
do people hate? Can hate be controlled
by the creation of laws? What is it that
causes hate to spread so quickly? These
are just a few of the questions we will explore as we attempt to get a deeper
understanding of hate. Fix these
questions in your mind as I suppose in somewhat of a rambling manner, we will
seek to shed a balanced light on the nature of hate.
According to the scripture there
are certain facts that we should know.
Before the creation of man, Lucifer, God’s Holy angel in charge of God’s
creation became jealous because God had all power and commanded the angels. Desiring a bigger share of this power he
organized a revolt against the Kingdom of God.
Failing in his objective, he was cast out upon the earth. Jesus alluded to seeing the Devil cast out
upon the earth, striking it like a bolt of lightening. The end result of this cosmic upheaval was,
the earth became without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the
deep. Choosing not to make an end to his
creative works, judgment was deferred, a restoration process began. The earth being overrun with evil, God began
to create good or opposite to offset the evilness caused or created by the
devil. God said, “Let there be light”,
and he separated the light from the darkness, this is indicative of the fact
that he did not destroy the darkness, he contain it. He spoke to the waters that overran the earth
and dry land appeared, He defined his
works as ‘good’. His divine purpose was
not to destroy, but to bring about a restoration process through the
establishment of opposites and choices.
According to the book of Revelation in the new Heaven and Earth, there
will be no night and the seas will no longer exist. Scripture documentation can be found in my
book, “Understanding The Word of God”.
Within the contents of the Kings
James Version of the Holy Scripture the word hate is used eighty seven times,
there are eighteen occurrences of the word hatred, the word love is used two
hundred and eighty six times. Another
comparison is the word day is used 1576 times while the word night is only used
301 times, darkness appears one hundred and forty five times. There is a subtle message in these facts
which is often overlooked. Hate is like a seed, if we nurture it it will
grow. When hate presents itself, it is
hard not to stare at it, but If we stare at hate we can become overcome by
it. Hate produces a blinding effect that
causes our perception to suffer. We see things through darken lens. The rhetoric of a hate filled society can be
pervasive, which is why the Bible warning us against letting hate into our
hearts. Once hate enters our heart it
contaminates our lifestyle and we become the victims of hate. The opposite of
hate is love. Hate is to love what night
is to day. The objective of hate in our heart is to choke out or destroy love. Hate is an emotion that is fed by the lust of
the flesh. It sees what other processes
and its lusts after it.
Asked how to get rid of racism or
hate, a person of notoriety responded, “stop talking about it.” To address the issue of hate does not
diminish hate, rather it provides a result that is opposite of the intended
objective. The so called discussion on
racism has not curbed the spirit of hate, rather there is a divide that is
growing, and this country is being torn apart.
The consensus of todays society is to seek out hatred or racism, expose
it, discuss it and it will go away. This
is far from the truth. When Nancy Regan instituted a program of, “Just say no”
to drugs in our High Schools, the use of drugs increased. Hate is like a flower, in darkness, it will
struggle to exist, but to expose it to the light for all to see its intricate
nature, it will flourish and produce seeds.
This hate, the same as prostitution or drugs cannot be controlled by
laws. Laws merely reshape the playing
field. When the playing field is
reshaped it is usually at the expense of some other group. Under the guise of a Utopian society, hate,
racism, and civil rights have been exposed and examined, the rights of one
group trumps the rights of the other group and Christ has been left standing at
the door knocking.
On October 28, 2009 President
Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention
Act, which expanded existing United States federal hate crime law to apply to
crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation,
gender identity, or disability, and dropped the prerequisite that the victim be
engaging in a federally protected activity.
The purpose of this act was to insure the protection of all. This act combined with the Human Rights act
of 1964 proposes that we all should be able to live our lives free of hatred, and
racism and be able to enjoy a new found freedom based upon tolerance. These laws or acts are guilty of creating a
new form of hatred that is more destructive that the acts they sought to impede.
To be continued
