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Morning Reflection
October 1, 2025
A Time for Hatred?
“Christians who recoil at any suggestion that we should hate haven’t spent enough time reading their Bibles. David loathes those who rise against the Lord: “I hate them with a perfect hatred” (Ps. 139:22). Solomon’s “turn, turn” poem finds a “time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace” in the rhythm of life (Eccle. 3:8). Elsewhere, Solomon says Yahweh hates seven things: He hates haughty eyes, lying tongues, hands that shed innocent blood, hearts that devise evil, feet that run to wickedness, false witnesses, and those who spread strife among brothers (Prov. 6:16–19). Most famously, pithily, and chillingly, Yahweh himself declares, “Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated” (Mal. 1:2–3). Theologians—the best of them—offer clarifications, but they don’t try to escape the dreadful truth of Scripture: God hates, and wants us to hate too.
God hates, but he isn’t hate. God is love, and his hatred expresses the love he is… Properly, for both God and for us, hate flows from love, as the zealous readiness to kill and die for what and whom we love.”
Peter Leithart: First Things, September 19, 20025
Reflection by Peter Vanderveen
I have one question to ask about the quotation above: who did Jesus hate? I am dead serious in asking this. Who, specifically, and explicitly, did Jesus hate? Write your answer below:
__________________________________________.
Search the Gospels (especially you who apparently “haven’t spent enough time reading [your] Bibles.” Find for me a clear example of Jesus despising someone with a perfect hatred, wishing for his or her death, voicing a “readiness to kill… for what and whom [he] loved.” Jesus certainly had every excuse to seethe with hatred. In the situations where he was most confronted by what we might consider evil, he chose to remain silent. For what good would confrontational words have done then, except exacerbate the rage of the crowds?
If the Gospels are an incomplete record, then search the Epistles. Tell me where Paul – or any of the other writers – made the claim that Jesus must have hated those who, in one way or another, were oppressing or abusing or injuring someone who Jesus loved. There must have been many; cruelty abounded in Jesus’ time. Who were Jesus’ opponents, his enemies? The Epistle writers could have reported this. And if you can’t name a single one, then maybe it would be acceptable to list the number of times the writers instructed members of the early church to hate in the name of Jesus. Hate, after all, is a supremely effective motivator. It could have been useful – a perfect branding statement for a fledgling community.
I don’t think that I have taken Peter Leithart’s words out of context or have misrepresented the gist of his recent article. His employment of Old Testament references would be perfectly acceptable in many evangelical circles. Many believe in a form of Biblicism in which any verse of the Scriptures can be lifted out of context and used as if it plainly declares God’s will. (Try this for yourself, pick some random verses and apply to them the authority of a divine decree; you’ll immediately see how ridiculous this practice is). Yet rarely are those who do this challenged directly enough to reveal the utter inconsistency of their convictions. Perhaps it’s just too wearying to do so. But when left unchecked, this habit can wreak havoc and destroy lives. This is what hate does.
Jesus said “love your enemies.” He said this unambiguously. I can point to the reference in the Scriptures – because I read the Bible.
And by my reading, the Gospels detach love from hate. Jesus exhibited this. He lived it, and he was killed by those who insisted that love must also legitimize hate. The resurrection of Jesus, however, stands as the testament that love triumphs not by extinguishing those who are hated, separating the wheat from the chaff; love triumphs by extinguishing hatred itself. Hatred is no longer the inevitable shadow side of love. For God has transcended this seemingly intractable division; such that love is all. Love alone is an infinite passion. And the church’s witness begins and ends with this singular conviction.
And if we do not hold this line, then we must face this question: what kind of world would we bring about if hate is the primary expression of our love?
Prayer
We will stand before you, O Lord, at the last,
and we will know as we are known,
and we will see what we have failed to see;
open our eyes to see and know
that we stand in your presence now,
that you are here before us
in the needs of family, friends, and strangers alike,
seeking our response of love;
grant that we may respond now in such a way
that we may be prepared to stand before you at the last.
Christopher Webber: Give Us Grace
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