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.
