Someone once told me, "Don't hate," when I aired one or more of my views, as I am wont to do on occasion. He did not seem to recognize the implied contradiction in his mandate.
Hate in the Bible is not only required, but the Bible has a very specific theology of it, just as it does of Love. King David contributed to the Psalter several of what are called "Imprecatory Psalms." These were given by God for the express purpose of cursing God's enemies in song. Psalm 109 forms the pre-eminent example of such a song. This was given by same Holy Spirit who inspired all the prophets who taught of love, of love for God and man.
The point here is that the Bible places qualifications on all its teachings, and thus to quote any one of its propositions in isolation from ALL the others forms an inherent exegetical fallacy (eisegesis by default). The Bible holds all of its individual propositions to be true ONLY in light of all the others. This is why Paul the apostle could command Christians to love one another deeply (from the heart) and also finish 1 Corinthians 16 with, "If any love not the Lord Jesus, let him be damned."
The idea of both love and hate in the Bible are to be understood covenantally, meaning in light of God's friends and enemies. The Proverbs (see 6:16-19) are plain enough that God HATES the wicked and abominable person, and decrees the death penalty in the Word of God for those who -- by their actions -- prove that the hate him. This includes about 30 different classes of people, including witches, murderers, and all sorts of biblically defined felons. Not all crimes in the Bible are capital offenses, and not all sins are even crimes. Some sins like coveting have no civil penalty attached to them at all, as God reserves the right to judge the heart on a Day he has appointed by the Man who he has ordained to that task, Jesus Christ the Lord.
So here are a few points one might wish to consider before he says to a Christian (most ignorantly) "Don't hate."
1. God commands the hatred of his most hardened enemies, and has imposed the death penalty to prove it. This was NOT a loving act, but a declaration of war on the gravest among the wicked.
2. God Himself hates, and he says so repeatedly in the Word of God -- ironically an act of grace to prevent us from becoming someone He wishes to put to death.
3. The primary defintion of hatred in the Bible -- which focues much more on the deeds associated with the emotion than the emotion itself - often simply means "to shun" or "to reject," as in "Jacob have I loved, but Esau I hated." This shows the acceptance and blessing bestowed upon the one, and the rejection and curse imposed upon the other.
4. No society tolerates, nor can it without destroying itself, ALL its members. The death penalty exists in almost every culture ever recorded, and civil punishments do exist in all of them. Thus, there is never a society where hate does not exist, and the person who refuses to hate the serial killer who brutally victimizes the most helpless is no better than the wicked he defends.
5. This shows that it is never a choice between hatred or no hatred, but only WHOM we must and will hate, and how we ought properly to express that hate, as God commands.
6. The one who rejects hatred (or feigns it rather) chooses to hate hatred. This is obviously self-contradictory and foolish. This demand, moreover is an implicit command to reject Christ and the Bible. Just say NO.
7. The command to love throughout the Bible implies the command to hate some. One cannot love both a man (victim), and the one who would put him to death at the same time. You must choose whom you are willing to shoot in some cases. And when you fire, there are times when you MUST shoot to kill. Ask any police officer or soldier who has seen real life combat with evil people.
8. Even the apostle Paul said [in front of a crowd accusing him of blasphemy falsely], "If I have done anything deserving of death, I do not protest my death..." He simply wanted a fair trial, but stood for the law, and was willing to, even if and when it accuses himself.
9. The Bible repeatedly refers to itself -- both in part -- this passage quoting that one -- or in whole -- where it discusses the "law of the Lord" -- a self-referential text. When it speaks of the penalties of the law in particular, it refers to them as the "judgments" of God. The Bible repeatedly praises and affirms the utter soundness and moral propriety of those features of His holy commandments. In the modern legal jargon, these are either "awards," (of both reward or relief) or else punitive measures including injunctions, fines, and degrees of negative sanctions (i.e. first or second degree murder) associated with the crimes and their several aggravations which might attend them. God does not have everyone whom He hates in the same degree, but judges them with the severity of which they judge Him and others. This principle of divine justice is called "Lex Talionis."
Therefore, God hates those who hate Him, and loves those who love him, just as the second commandment clearly specifies. God visits the evil of those who hate Him upon the wicked and their descendants to the third and fourth generations, but shows mercy to thousands of generations to those who love Him and keep his commandments. Both expressions of God's love and hatred he measures and carries out by the most meticulous adherence to the details of all His holy law. And he requires the civil authorities to do likewise.
This should suffice for now, though sound objections to this popular platitude could be mulitplied at length. So go ahead and hate, but do it properly. You must hate the right people, and do so according to your station and calling. The command to hate in the Bible never simply amounts to a command to do harm to anyone. This is the prerogative of those appointed to the task as civil authorities, and of God Himself when He so chooses to remove a man from the earth for the protection of His good name and, or His people.
This is why it says, "Now all has been heard, here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God will call into JUDGMENT every deed, including every hidden thing, whether it be good or evil."
I strongly recommend that you take this passage to be the exact truth. For God will not deviate from His law in the least stroke of a pen, not a crossed T or dotted i. In Hebrew, this is the flourish of a horn. He will do all He has said and perform the thing that has come out of His mouth. For God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man that He should change His mind when He has sworn an oath.
Thus it is written, "The Lord has sworn, AND WILL NOT change His mind ...." Thus, we must hate what God hates, in order to fear the Lord and shun evil. To fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One [via His law] is true understanding."
Believe it and live, or pay the heaviest price, which you cannot yet fathom, though the Word of God tells of it in the plainest terms possible. God will not yield from His promises to bless the righteous and curse the wicked. And anyone who says otherwise is a fool of the first order.
And God has no love of folly, but of mercy, truth and humility. For that is what He is like. He is like -- exactly like -- Jesus Christ the Lord. For any more commentary on love and hate, I commit you to his excellent testimony in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
No one has said it better, neither has any ever spoken like this Man.
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