Love and Hate
[It was not my original intention to do a study of the topic "hate." I originally planned to have 2 presentations about the great commands about love. Then I thought it might be good to include a few comments about hate - just to keep things "balanced." But when I started looking at the topic, I found so many unexpected things, that it quickly expanded into the series given below.]
It seems that everyone talks about love; but they never have a kind word about hate. Yet if we look at what the Bible says, we will discover that the Bible describes hate as a GOOD characteristic, nearly 25% of the time!
When I discovered this, I concluded that it was time for me to find out what God says about it! Why should I blindly accept what others tell me, when they have never taken the time to find out what God says? Worse yet, why should I blindly accept what the world says, when Jesus has already warned us that the world lies?
To do this study, I first examined the two greatest commands - both of which have to do with love. Then I examined every place where the word "hate" is found, and analyzed what those verses said.
A look at every verse where this command is found.
2. Love for Neighbor - PDF / JPEG
A look at every verse where this command is found.
3. Is Hate Ever Good? - PDF / JPEG
The issue of getting our views from people vs. from God. Also a summary of how every "hate" verse in the Bible is used.
A deeper look into "good hate" verses that apply the word to things.
A deeper look into "good hate" verses that apply the word to people.
6. How Love and Hate Work Together (1) - PDF / JPEG
A look at how they work together, based on what we can find in an English translation of the Bible. (We can learn a lot without having to be a "original language expert"!)
7. How Love and Hate Work Together (2) - PDF / JPEG
A look at how they work together, based on additional information we can discover when we look at the original Hebrew and Greek words. (We can benefit from doing this, even though it is not a mandatory requirement for learning what the Bible says.)