What is the point of living without hate?

Wow... I don't even understand.
Why wake up in the morning to HATE. What's the point in that? How does hate get anything done? What does it solve?? I get up every morning to LOVE. Not only because Jesus said so, but because it makes me feel good. It makes those I love feel good.

What good comes out of hate?? I haven't heard anything yet. I hear a lot of good things come out if love. The only people who believe anything good can come of hate are sociopaths and monsters.

Soothfish said:

Are you sure about that? Then why did they crucify Jesus? According to your own theory, he should have converted all of them. Instead he was abandoned by all of them including all of the living disciples. Love only works if your enemy understands it but you know as well as I do that this world is filled with useless vermin.

Right now as we speak, a very sweet and innocent person is being raped and mutilated alive. Terrorists have even recorded videos of themselves doing this to little children. You don't even need to go to a warzone. Sometimes this happens literally down the street from where you are sitting right now.

I'm getting the impression that Christians are supposed to sit around being cheerful in the midst of this.

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You misunderstander me, when I say that the enemies are beyond you, I didn't mean your enemies will love you, I simply mean you will have the heart to forgive them.

There is a story during the Korean war, the north Koreans conquered a city, and a solider got a pastor's son, going to execute him. The pastor's younger son stand up and offered to exchange his brother's life. The solider killed them both. The situation quickly turned however as the city was retaken by the south, and that solider is captured. People wanted to kill that north Korean solider, the the pastor pardoned him instead.

There will always be people doing bad things, but we should not brought us down to their level.

Soothfish said:

I do not understand why Christians are ordered to love their enemies and to not hate.

Without hate what is the point?

The only thing that gets me out of bed in the morning is the hope of one day crushing my enemies with absolute merciless brutality. Spiritual love seems to be a completely useless exercise intended to make the participant feel good. It has never overcame anything. It is apparently so weak that it exists only in the metaphysical nature of Christ's death. In reality it seems to be for 'martyrs' who die for brownie points in paradise. They also get eliminated alongside the rest of their families as evil multiplies and takes their space in the gene pool. Life is merciless so why do we show mercy?!

In the meantime, the world is filled to the brim with evil monsters who exist to snuff out the helpless. At one point they may have been human but now they are irredeemably evil. The enemy responds only to swift justice and overwhelming unrelenting force. They understand no other language.

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Without love, what is the point? God is love and His commandments are to;

(Mark 12:30) Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. 31 The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.”

Soothfish said:

I do not understand why Christians are ordered to love their enemies and to not hate.

Without hate what is the point?

The only thing that gets me out of bed in the morning is the hope of one day crushing my enemies with absolute merciless brutality. Spiritual love seems to be a completely useless exercise intended to make the participant feel good. It has never overcame anything. It is apparently so weak that it exists only in the metaphysical nature of Christ's death. In reality it seems to be for 'martyrs' who die for brownie points in paradise. They also get eliminated alongside the rest of their families as evil multiplies and takes their space in the gene pool. Life is merciless so why do we show mercy?!

In the meantime, the world is filled to the brim with evil monsters who exist to snuff out the helpless. At one point they may have been human but now they are irredeemably evil. The enemy responds only to swift justice and overwhelming unrelenting force. They understand no other language.

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It has to do, at least partially, with the fact that we are, as Christians, not of this world. I see that you are a "deist" and not a Christian, so perhaps it is not a part of your doctrine. Christians who give their lives and wills over to Jesus Christ are transformed in the process. It doesn't leave us without the temptation to hate, but we are given grace to resist that temptation. Our eschatology is not a man made solution which transforms this world. The new heavens and the new earth will be brought about by the action of Jesus Christ. Heaven is the perfection of the human soul. Part of this perfection is perfect love. The absence of hate. Hate is a result of fear. Perfect love drives away all fear. We love and pray for our enemies, because they are human beings, also made in the image and likeness of God.

All of us are deserving of death for our sins. We seek eternal life with God, and we seek God's forgiveness for our many many many failures at following His two perfect commandments. To love the Lord God with all our hearts, all our minds, and all our strength. And to love our neighbor as ourselves. We act towards our neighbor in the closest approximation we are able to muster by the grace of God, to our Lord Jesus Christ, who was the example of perfection in life, as we believe He was in fact God, and showing us the model of humanity intended by the creator. We forgive, pray for and love the undeserving and the unlovable, because we wish to be forgiven and loved by our Father in heaven.

I want to add on a personal note that the life you have described sounds wretched and dismally sad to me. In all sincerity, I am offering a prayer for you as I post this. That you may find other reasons to get out of bed in the morning, than to "crush your enemies". May God bless you with His peace. Charitable love (Agape), and forgiveness. May you look around one day, and find that you have no personal enemies. It can happen. It happened to me.

Oh my Jesus,
Forgive us our sins,
Save us from the fires of hell,
And lead all souls to Heaven.
Especially those in most need of they mercy.
Amen.

dcalling said:

You misunderstander me, when I say that the enemies are beyond you, I didn't mean your enemies will love you, I simply mean you will have the heart to forgive them.

There is a story during the Korean war, the north Koreans conquered a city, and a solider got a pastor's son, going to execute him. The pastor's younger son stand up and offered to exchange his brother's life. The solider killed them both. The situation quickly turned however as the city was retaken by the south, and that solider is captured. People wanted to kill that north Korean solider, the the pastor pardoned him instead.

There will always be people doing bad things, but we should not brought us down to their level.

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How do you personally determine who your enemies are?

Soothfish said:

I do not understand why Christians are ordered to love their enemies and to not hate.

Without hate what is the point?

The only thing that gets me out of bed in the morning is the hope of one day crushing my enemies with absolute merciless brutality. Spiritual love seems to be a completely useless exercise intended to make the participant feel good. It has never overcame anything. It is apparently so weak that it exists only in the metaphysical nature of Christ's death. In reality it seems to be for 'martyrs' who die for brownie points in paradise. They also get eliminated alongside the rest of their families as evil multiplies and takes their space in the gene pool. Life is merciless so why do we show mercy?!

In the meantime, the world is filled to the brim with evil monsters who exist to snuff out the helpless. At one point they may have been human but now they are irredeemably evil. The enemy responds only to swift justice and overwhelming unrelenting force. They understand no other language.

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I hope this is a joke… or deliberate exaggeration….

Only love can truly change people. It’s like that fable about the sun and the wind trying to get this guy’s jacket off… and the wind blew and blew with all of his strength and might but the guy just held on tighter and tighter to his jacket against the cold. Finally he told the sun “Go for it, see what you can do” so the sun just gently shone and the man got warm and took off his coat.

Only love can change people. You can pass laws and try to force people but you can’t really change them. Only love changes them. Think of someone addicted to drugs, and you try arresting them, punishing them, and it never works, no matter how bad the punishment is they always go back… then that person has a baby… and out of the LOVE for this helpless baby they finally find the strength to drop the addition….

The one thing no amount of force could do.

So does this mean you would rather be hated than loved???

Soothfish said:

I do not understand why Christians are ordered to love their enemies and to not hate.

Without hate what is the point?

The only thing that gets me out of bed in the morning is the hope of one day crushing my enemies with absolute merciless brutality. Spiritual love seems to be a completely useless exercise intended to make the participant feel good. It has never overcame anything. It is apparently so weak that it exists only in the metaphysical nature of Christ's death. In reality it seems to be for 'martyrs' who die for brownie points in paradise. They also get eliminated alongside the rest of their families as evil multiplies and takes their space in the gene pool. Life is merciless so why do we show mercy?!

In the meantime, the world is filled to the brim with evil monsters who exist to snuff out the helpless. At one point they may have been human but now they are irredeemably evil. The enemy responds only to swift justice and overwhelming unrelenting force. They understand no other language.

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Quite honestly, this to me looks more like a psychological issue than a spiritual one.

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dlamberth said:

Quite honestly, this to me looks more like a psychological issue than a spiritual one.

.

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And, it is individual psychology that drives what each person would deem; "spiritual".

bhsmte said:

How do you personally determine who your enemies are?

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If they hate you, wish you harm, or actively try to inflict injury--those are pretty good indicators.

I believe a Christian should be an enemy of none; because loving one's enemy implies, at the very least, that one refuses to act the part of the antagonist. But we can't control how others act or feel toward us, and so when they hate you, the response is to keep loving them. Refusing to return evil for evil, but to respond with sincere kindness.

I ought to be my enemy's friend. If someone wishes me dead, I should wish them a long, wonderful, happy life.

If that sounds crazy, it's because it is.

-CryptoLutheran