What is the point of living without hate?

[Soothfish]

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.

 

[PsychoSarah]

Wow.

 

[PsychoSarah]

This sounds awful.

 

[Willie T]

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.

Well, let's see......... You're basically at the bottom of that nasty food chain you described, so does "hating" help you any? Nope, not a heck of a lot.

So, if love actually brought Christ back to life... where's the down side?

 

[PsychoSarah]

Societies that condone all acts of hate don't last long.

 

[seashale76]

Feeling homicidal is an indicator of mental illness.

Please go see the following:
1) a mental health care provider
2) the Great Physician- Jesus Christ

One day- you WILL be directly in God's presence. The hell you will experience will be God's love for you and knowing you sinned against that love. That is the unbearable torture and torment of the lake of fire.

 

[joey_downunder]

To the natural or non-Christian mind you are right - it makes absolutely NO sense to "love your enemies" as Jesus commanded.

It is something that only becomes possible when a person becomes born again, when they believe in Jesus Christ. What is the Gospel? Through faith in Jesus and what He did for us the Christian is given a new "heart of flesh" to replace the old "heart of stone". Even then we still struggle with our old sinful nature - wanting to hate our enemies for what they have done to us/others.

1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. 15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

Therefore asking yourself whether you can give up your hatred is the wrong question because you already know deep down it is killing you in slow motion. Instead you should ask Jesus to heal your broken heart and give you a new one. You cannot break this cycle of hatred in your own strength.

P.S. It is something I often struggle as well because I want my unrepentant abuser to "pay" for what they did to me in the past. I have to trust that God will do what is right and that God will punish them in the way that would bring maximum punishment IF they refuse to turn from their sins.

God knows everything that is going on in their mind/heart - I can only "guesstimate" after all. If I didn't do that - and do that every day -I would be on the same road of hatred that you seem to be determined to stay walking on.

Proverbs 14:12There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.

 

[Harry3142]

Clinical psychologists and psychiatrists have known for decades that those who feed on hatred in nearly every case do not harm the ones they have chosen to hate. Instead, they destroy themselves. It's seen by the doctors as one of the most harmful negative emotions, ultimately bringing misery, and even physical illness, to the ones who harbor it.

The people whom they hate are not affected; they go about their business as if the person who hates them didn't even exist. So the hatred is left to fester inside the person possessing it, until its infection causes him to lash out at someone who actually deserves his love and respect.

 

[Soothfish]

To the natural or non-Christian mind you are right - it makes absolutely NO sense to "love your enemies" as Jesus commanded.

It is something that only becomes possible when a person becomes born again, when they believe in Jesus Christ. What is the Gospel? Through faith in Jesus and what He did for us the Christian is given a new "heart of flesh" to replace the old "heart of stone". Even then we still struggle with our old sinful nature - wanting to hate our enemies for what they have done to us/others.

1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. 15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

Therefore asking yourself whether you can give up your hatred is the wrong question because you already know deep down it is killing you in slow motion. Instead you should ask Jesus to heal your broken heart and give you a new one. You cannot break this cycle of hatred in your own strength.

P.S. It is something I often struggle as well because I want my unrepentant abuser to "pay" for what they did to me in the past. I have to trust that God will do what is right and that God will punish them in the way that would bring maximum punishment IF they refuse to turn from their sins.

God knows everything that is going on in their mind/heart - I can only "guesstimate" after all. If I didn't do that - and do that every day -I would be on the same road of hatred that you seem to be determined to stay walking on.

Proverbs 14:12There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.

The problem is that God does absolutely nothing. He does not stop evil nor does he give his followers any power to stand against it. We are just supposed to spend 80 years on this Earth waiting to die and watching those around us lose both body and soul??!!! We are to pray for God to help us be ok with reality the way it is? To not care and to do nothing?! Only cowards can go to heaven?! You are right when you say that it makes no sense....

Life itself appears to be the purest expression of God's contempt for us!

 

[bling]

The problem is that God does absolutely nothing. He does not stop evil nor does he give his followers any power to stand against it. We are just supposed to spend 80 years on this Earth waiting to die and watching those around us lose both body and soul??!!! We are to pray for God to help us be ok with reality the way it is? To not care and to do nothing?! Only cowards can go to heaven?! You are right when you say that it makes no sense....

Life itself appears to be the purest expression of God's contempt for us!

This world is full of tragedies, but those tragedies produce the best opportunities for true Christians to cease and have good come from them. God is going to allow all kinds of tragedies to occur, but will work through Christians to maximize the positive that can come out of these tragedies, but Christians are just not yet ceasing those opportunities.

This world would be a very different place if Christian were truly allowing themselves to be led by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

 

[~Anastasia~]

The Bible is not completely silent on the topic of hatred.

We are to hate EVIL. (Note that it does NOT say we are to hate those who are evil.)

Ezekiel 35:6
therefore as I live,” declares the Lord God, “I will give you over to bloodshed, and bloodshed will pursue you; since you have not hated bloodshed, therefore bloodshed will pursue you.

Romans 12:9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

Rev. 2:6 Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

It's a bit of a Christian cliche' but it's well said that we should hate the sin and love the sinner.

One reason is that we ALL were sinners. There were times in my life, had I died right then, I would have been in a SORRY state, and very afraid to meet God. I am intensely thankful that He allowed me to live past those times, and come into His grace instead.

Others out there sin, and continue to sin. Their sins are sometimes terrible, and we are to HATE those sins.

However, we don't know what will happen to those persons. Perhaps they will change. Saul/Paul persecuted the church, and killed the followers of Jesus, but then converted and became the apostle to the gentiles and wrote much of the New Testament. A follower of Jesus seeing him before his conversion though would have had a very different opinion of his acts up until that time.

Perhaps they will not repent. Perhaps they will continue to commit evil sins. In that case, they fall into God's hands, who tells us that vengeance is His.

He will do whatever is right, and that includes whatever He will do with those who commit horrible sins. He does not allow us to take that right into our own hands, though.

I don't say this to justify your thoughts though. I'm troubled by many of the things you say. But this saying that we are to blindly love "everything" as though the world was made of only rainbows and butterflies is not accurate.

 

[Soothfish]

This world is full of tragedies, but those tragedies produce the best opportunities for true Christians to cease and have good come from them. God is going to allow all kinds of tragedies to occur, but will work through Christians to maximize the positive that can come out of these tragedies, but Christians are just not yet ceasing those opportunities.

In theory, yes. In reality, no. There may be opportunities but Christians don't seem to know what to do.

This world would be a very different place if Christian were truly allowing themselves to be led by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

What do you mean by this? Are you saying that almost nobody has an actual relationship with God? The Cross was a failed operation that only worked for tiny few?!

 

[Soothfish]

Well, let's see......... You're basically at the bottom of that nasty food chain you described, so does "hating" help you any? Nope, not a heck of a lot.

So, if love actually brought Christ back to life... where's the down side?

Hate is merely the motivation for destroying the enemy.

 

[Soothfish]

The Bible is not completely silent on the topic of hatred.

We are to hate EVIL. (Note that it does NOT say we are to hate those who are evil.)

Ezekiel 35:6
therefore as I live,” declares the Lord God, “I will give you over to bloodshed, and bloodshed will pursue you; since you have not hated bloodshed, therefore bloodshed will pursue you.

Romans 12:9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

Rev. 2:6 Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

It's a bit of a Christian cliche' but it's well said that we should hate the sin and love the sinner.

One reason is that we ALL were sinners. There were times in my life, had I died right then, I would have been in a SORRY state, and very afraid to meet God. I am intensely thankful that He allowed me to live past those times, and come into His grace instead.

Others out there sin, and continue to sin. Their sins are sometimes terrible, and we are to HATE those sins.

However, we don't know what will happen to those persons. Perhaps they will change. Saul/Paul persecuted the church, and killed the followers of Jesus, but then converted and became the apostle to the gentiles and wrote much of the New Testament. A follower of Jesus seeing him before his conversion though would have had a very different opinion of his acts up until that time.

Perhaps they will not repent. Perhaps they will continue to commit evil sins. In that case, they fall into God's hands, who tells us that vengeance is His.

He will do whatever is right, and that includes whatever He will do with those who commit horrible sins. He does not allow us to take that right into our own hands, though.

I don't say this to justify your thoughts though. I'm troubled by many of the things you say. But this saying that we are to blindly love "everything" as though the world was made of only rainbows and butterflies is not accurate.

They are never going to change. Maybe someone who shoplifted at 15 has hope but someone who rapes, tortures, and murders little kids? Or someone who psychologically abuses people for pleasure? No. They can't be saved. They must be "purged".

God said that he would do something about it but he probably meant "I'll be back in 10 million years. See you then"

 

[~Anastasia~]

They can't be saved. They must be "purged".

The problem with this is

#1 You are saying they are beyond God's ability to regenerate?

#2 One who takes such a stance, steals God's right to execute judgment.

 

[isleof]

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.

So go hate yourself and those that enjoy hating. We don't really care that much.

 

[Soothfish]

So go hate yourself and those that enjoy hating. We don't really care that much.

If you don't care then why respond?

 

[Soothfish]

The problem with this is

#1 You are saying they are beyond God's ability to regenerate?

#2 One who takes such a stance, steals God's right to execute judgment.

One can't really say that it is beyond his ability but it really seems like he isn't trying. How do we know that God is active? Just believing his word? Is that really all there is to go on?

 

[Scott1979]

I'm sure you'll shoot his down like you everything else. Hate eats a person up inside. More often than not the hate you feel is towards a person that could care less if they are hurting you. So while you get ate up with hatred and become bitter, they are strolling through life without a care. Have fun running this into the ground.

 

[Willie T]

Hate is merely the motivation for destroying the enemy.

I think you will find any good martial arts fighter will prove you wrong on that one.