Unconditional Hate

Reading in Amos this morning I saw “Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph” (Amos 5:15). “Makes ya feel like a rousing Crusade or an invigorating Inquest, don’t it?” 

“Well, no. This is the age of Christian love, and Jesus taught us to love our enemies. After all, this isn’t even about how to treat our enemies. It says ‘hate evil’ not ‘hate people you think are evil’.” 

Still hate is a sensitive subject. We try to suppress hatred. We wish it would disappear from the face of the earth, but then we ourselves feel it, either at certain times or towards snakes and spiders, or perhaps certain medical procedures. Perhaps Amos is appealing to that deep human emotion to show how far we should run from distorting justice in order to advance our own interests or those of our buddies.

Jesus, Lover of our souls, also used shocking language when He commanded us to hate our fathers and mothers (Luke 14:26). No one believes the Holy One was promoting domestic violence or even the end of “unconditional love.” Rather He was saying dramatically that we should not allow their pleadings to turn us from our pursuit of God’s will in our own lives.

Unconditional love (agape) means that our hearts stay inclined towards a person regardless of what they do. Perhaps there is an appropriate unconditional hate that means our heart stays averse to things that dishonor God and break down society regardless of who promotes those things and regardless of how they may benefit us.