On Hate

This was a question presented to me by my friend based on concerns about some of the verses we had been memorizing. The latter part is my response. I hope this helps anyone struggling with these verses. If you have anything to add (or correct!) please do.

So, I have some questions.

How do these verses make sense together?

“I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.” Psalm 139:22

“You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Matthew 5:43-44

Are we supposed to love and hate them at the same time? They seem to contradict, but how is that possible? I don’t get it. I know we kind of already talked about this, but it just doesn’t make sense.

I’ve got a quote from John Piper that may or may not help. This quote is from an article that is rather philosophical in its language, but let’s see if it makes sense to you:

“God's emotional life is infinitely complex beyond our ability to fully comprehend. For example, who can comprehend that the Lord hears in one moment of time the prayers of ten million Christians around the world, and sympathizes with each one personally and individually like a caring Father (as Hebrews 4:15 says he will), even though among those ten million prayers some are broken-hearted and some are bursting with joy? How can God weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice when they are both coming to him at the same time—in fact are always coming to him with no break at all?

Or who can comprehend that God is angry at the sin of the world every day (Psalm 7:11), and yet every day, every moment, he is rejoicing with tremendous joy because somewhere in the world a sinner is repenting (Luke 15:7,10,23)? Who can comprehend that God continually burns with hot anger at the rebellion of the wicked, grieves over the unholy speech of his people (Ephesians 4:29-30), yet takes pleasure in them daily (Psalm 149:4), and ceaselessly makes merry over penitent prodigals who come home?”

How does this relate to our discussion? Well… the point is that God is far more complex than we can imagine. We think of being in certain moods at certain times, but it seems that just from the way things go on earth put together with what has been revealed in Scripture, it is the case that God is in every mood all the time! That’s mind boggling! As Piper points out, God “grieves over the unholy speech of His people” yet “takes pleasure in them daily.” This is even more confusing than loving something you hate. Take pleasure in someone who grieves you? Our God is an awesome God!

We should not think that God has a schizophrenic nature. He has a perfect nature. He has the ability to consistently and totally feel the right way all the time!

And what are we supposed to do with this? The best I can come up with is that we are indeed to feel two seemingly opposing ways toward the wicked. We hate them. What does that mean? It means we count them our enemies (Psalm 139:22). What do we do with our enemies? We love them (Matthew 5:43-44). What does that mean? We seek their best. We pray for them, etc. We do NOT take revenge into our own hands! Remember David says “O that You would slay the wicked, O God” (v. 19). And the Lord says, “Vengeance is mine” (Rom 12:19). Furthermore, David wants the wicked to leave him, not be around him, not affect him in a spiritually negative way. So we are not going to be spending time with the lost in such a way that we approve of what they do (Psalm 50:16-18), because doing so will affect our character toward something God hates (1 Cor 15:33).