Inspired Hatred

Jesus commands us to love our enemies. When they crucified him, he prayed for those who were killing him, and instructs us to do the same. He commands us that we are to forgive seventy times seven.

Most of us, if not all of us, desire to be able to live that way. We want to receive Gods mercy, and then begin to pour it out in a life of compassion for those around us.

But we have a problem, down inside us there is a cauldron of hatred in every single one of us, even the ones who think they love all the time and never hate anybody. And this cauldron of hatred just boils and churns and every once in a while erupts, sometimes at embarrassing moments.

And it continuously interferes with our desire to live a life in God's compassion.

Now sometimes we direct that hatred in upon ourselves. It becomes a kind of self-loathing that eats away at our souls. It warps and blinds and perverts our attitude toward everybody around us.

And sometimes we direct this cauldron of hatred out against a scapegoat somewhere outside ourselves. And we find it very therapeutic. It's not nearly so self-destructive if we can hate the Jews, or the whites, or the blacks, or our husband, or our wife, or a movement, or a political ideology, or the President.

Now, what are we going to do with this volcano inside, after we admit that it's there?

There are those who insist that there is absolutely no place for hatred in the life of the believer.

So you got to bury it, like a ton of waste to get rid of it. Put a cap on that volcano and hold it down!

But that is easier said than done.

Everybody who thinks they can cap that volcano of hatred in their hearts is in for a great big surprise when that thing explodes, as it always will.

Moreover, if we listen carefully to what Jesus says. He tells us that there is, in fact, a place for hatred in the life of the believer.

 He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

John 12:25

Now great multitudes accompanied him; and he turned and said to them, “If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Luke 14:25-26

What we have to learn to do is channel the volcano, so that we begin to hate the things we need to hate.

If you're ever going to have a clean house, you're going to have to learn to hate the dirt. Once you're satisfied with all that crud around, you'll never have a clean house.

If you're ever going to get rid of the excess weight, you're going to have to learn to hate the fat.

And, if you're ever going to get rid of the clutter in your mind, you're going to have to hate that clutter.

So in order to be able to love what needs to be loved, we also have to be able to hate what needs to be hated.

-If we're going to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind

-If we're going to love the lost sheep of the House of Israel

-If we're going to love even our flesh and blood enemies

… then we have to know who our real enemy is, and we have to learn to hate him.

We need to learn recognize and to hate our real enemy with absolute, passionate hatred

Suppose that shortly after you start following Jesus a wonderful new friend comes into your life. The most understanding and interesting friend you've ever had. Why, this friend just seems to know you like a book. You can talk about anything to this friend, share any problem and your friend always has an answer that makes you feel better. Compared with this wonderful new friend, all your brothers and sisters in the Lord look quite pale, immature and dull. While your friend has the gift of being able to analyze people and can show you their ulterior motives. Your friend can explain to you the will of God in such clear terms that everything is either black or white. Nothing in-between. It’s wonderful.

One day you wake up in the morning and discover that God suddenly seems to be a million miles away. He's gone. At the same time, you become aware of the fact that this friend begins to behave in a slightly different way, from the way he did before. Now it seems that he has a grip on your mind that undermines your confidence. Problems which before you could handle quite easily have now suddenly become overwhelming. Your circumstances are spinning like a volcano and you're crying out to God.

What's wrong?

Where did you go?

What happened to your peace?

How come I’ve lost your vision?

Now this new friend begins to step up the pressure.

Begins to make demands on your life which you now concede are diametrically opposed to God's will. And yet, you can't seem to get out of conflict. You discover that you need that friend more than any friendship you’ve ever known.

What am I going to do now?

Then one night you suddenly wake up out of a sound sleep and it's as if audible words come up inside your heart and ask you, “Who is this friend”?

And you begin to see with a flash of light that comes straight from heaven that this new friend is not a friend at all. But that this is an enemy, that has driven a wedge between you and God. And has put a hook in your heart and it's sucking you down away from the light into deeper darkness and you will not be able to get yourself together and come back into the light until you begin to hate, instead of love all the things this “friend” represents.

Now please understand I'm not talking about a flesh and blood friend.

For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:12

And yet there are things in our lives which we have come to love and which form the outlines of this friend. Things we consider quite innocent, legitimate, and necessary. But the treachery of it all is that these things promise us a life apart from God. Even though they've disappointed us a thousand times, they keep luring us away and we get sucked in again and again into these promises and we find ourselves waking up in the swamp day after day right off the track.

And we will continue to be lured and disappointed, lured and disappointed, anxious, afraid, upset, confused until we learn to deal with this friend, not with indifference, not with tolerance, but with absolute passionate hatred. We have to learn that there is a place for hatred.

Look at our Lord. It was wonderful the way our Lord loved Peter. He loved this blustering man, he loved him. How our Lord’s heart began to just well up with joy when Peter got hold of the vision…

“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Matthew 16:15

But minutes later, as Jesus begins to explain what it means to be the Christ, the son of the living God. This is going to bring suffering, a cross, death, shame. And Peter comes back with a prosperity gospel. This is never going to happen to you, Lord! God forbid! Jesus returns, words to Peter that are unmitigated hatred not against Peter, but against that which is inspiring Peter.

Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men.”

Matthew 16:23

And while Jesus tolerates, welcomes, accepts all kinds of sin in the sinner and takes them as they are, once the sinner claims that he has turned from sin to God, Jesus absolutely refuses to tolerate the lie that you can have God and self, or God and mammon. You're either going to hate the one and love the other or you’re going to cling to the one and despise the other.

You can’t have them both.

And it becomes extremely necessary in our life with God and in our labors in the vineyard that we learn to take this vague toleration of all kinds of crud in our lives, and turn it into hatred.

Lord, show us those things which are getting in the way and dragging us back and teach us what it means to hate these things; with a passion….clear, unmixed, and continuous.

Without being suicidal or morbid, we need to learn to hate our life in this world.

He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body (start to hate these things) you will live. 

Romans 8:12-13.

The Israelites would never have left Egypt. They'd been there forever if they hadn't been brought to the place where they started to hate their life in Egypt. By bringing them into the place where they began to hate their life in Egypt, they were then driven by this hatred of their lives in Egypt to follow Moses out across the Red Sea into the wilderness and unto the land which God had prepared for them.

And we need to begin to see that the life that we have in this world, even if we’re prospering as they say on Christian television. Even if we're doing well, and our circumstances are going great, even so, our life in this world is an abomination and it’s sick and it's pale and it's repulsive compared with five seconds of divine peace.

-Lord! Show us this. Shape us up. Strip us down. Bring us to the place where we truly begin to appreciate the life that you bought for us on that cross.

Lord, bring me to the place where I utterly despise anything that tempts me to get comfortable here in Egypt; that I may continue to move toward that Promised Land.

Secondly, we need to learn to hate with a passion, anything that promises us life apart from God, particularly mammon.

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Matthew 6:24

And all over the place in Christian circles people are being told in a thousand subtle ways that you can serve God and Mammon. You can't. You can’t!

If we want to serve God and if we really want to love God and walk with him with all our hearts and minds, and soul, and strength then we have to learn to hate those things that offer us a substitute for God. This is particularly true of mammon. That is money, and things that money can buy. Now of course we need money. All of us have to pay our bills we have to pay off that car and make payments on that house. Or we have to pay our rent and buy our groceries.

But, how often mammon become that friend that promises us security. Mammon seems to understand us and gives us that feeling of wellbeing.

God help us to see what this unguarded friendship with mammon is doing to our inner life. And to begin to do something about that!

God help us to hate the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life.

Once, downtown a fellow came up to me and we started to talk and he was feeling quite good. And he pointed to a bottle in his pocket and he says, “See that? That’s my God”. What he was doing was pointing to his friend, his false friend that was making a mockery of his life and will continue to do that until he learns to hate that friendship. Oh, I'm sure there are moments when the same man will say, “See that? That's my enemy. I hate that!” But it won't mean a thing until that hatred is real. You know, sometimes a person involved in an adulterous relationship will say, “I hate it. I hate this person,” but until they jump out of bed and run and take everything with them, their hatred isn't true. And this man is no different from the rest of us who may not have bottles in our pockets. But we have that false friend either in our pockets, in our garage, in our bank, in our bed, in our refrigerator, or just in our head. Whatever it is, we have to see where the false friend is and push it away with a passion.

Finally, we need to learn to hate the little sins, and the little lies.

Catch us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vineyards.

Song of Solomon 2:15 a

We need to see what these little foxes are doing to our lives. They are devastating us and we don't even realize it until we begin to open our eyes and understand what's going on in here and so hate what they're doing that we drive them out.

-The little twisting of the truth

-The little escape into fantasy

-The little indulgence of my ego, or of my flesh

-That little habit that seemed so innocent and yet, it holds me with a grip of iron

Until I begin to see what this is doing to me and undercover it and look at it for what it is and hate it with a passion…I will remain in bondage.

People like to be inspired with positive things to make them feel good. I am Sorry. I'm sure that there are many who are bored by this whole idea. I can't help that. But anybody who's serious about walking with God will know that this is an area where they really have to do something.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

John 12:24

He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

If we truly want to be able to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, and our neighbor as ourselves…Then we're going to have to begin to do something about those attachments and those loves that drag us down, bind us to the earth, and blur our vision.

May God deliver us from the numbness of mind and the stupor of the flesh that keeps us from taking these actions and making these decisions…

That we may begin to love with a passion, those things that lead to life.

That we may also begin to hate with a passion, those things that lead to eternal death.

Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, we just thank you and praise you for the way that we see as we read the gospels that you never spoon fed spiritual life into the disciples. That they had to think. It was never done for them through entertainment. And it never happened to them, if they didn't exercise their minds. Help us Lord to use these minds you've given us and exercise these wills, and come out of our slumber, and take the actions we need to take before we're so numb, so dull and so asleep that we're beyond reaching. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen