Mark 10:21 states “Come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”

Galatians 4:16 “Have I therefore become your [the world’s] enemy by telling you the truth?” YES, INDEED.

This might appear a controversial subject in the Christian world, however, my duty as one of His is to open up the Word and show you what He’s shown me, praise God. How do we handle “hate” when it comes to us from the “world”? Have you suffered real hatred formed against you? Hate by the world is that of despising God's children, and is rooted in evil. Hate seeks to steal, kill and destroy. Have you heard of “hate crimes”? Killing Jesus was a “hate crime”. Killing the Jews was a “hate crime”. Racism spawned “hate crimes”. Men who hate women beat them and some even kill them, and vise versa. One thing’s for sure, the cost of evangelism is that we will be hated by the world.

We need to remember that we are in the world, but not of it. John 15:19 states, “"If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.” The god of this world is Satan who was given this dominion for a measured amount of time. Satan hates God; therefore, he hates God’s children, and those who are his hate God and His children, too.  

The word “enemies” in the New Testament is the Greek word echthros (ekh-thros’); from a primitive echtho (to hate); hateful (passive odious, or act hostile); usually as a noun, an adversary (especially Satan):-enemy, foe.

Okay, so God loves the world, right? He also tells us to love our enemies. Did you know there are clear differences in the word “love” based on the Greek definitions? The word “love” applicable to both these statements is agapao (ag-ap-ah’-o); perh. from agan (much) to love (in social or moral sense (be-) love (-ed). Compared to our love of God and God’s love for believers, this is wider, embracing especially the judgment and the deliberate assent of the will as a matter of principle, duty and propriety; a matter of the mind. This type of love is His first commandment. John 15:12 “"This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”

This would explain John 17:9 "I [Jesus] ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours.”

God loves His children differently than He loves the world. It is the Greek word agape (ag-ah’-pay); love, i.e. affection or benevolence; specifically (plural) a love-feast:- (feast of charity), ([-ably]), dear, love as shown in John 15:13 “"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.You are My friends if you do what I command you.” If we reject Him, we are not His friends. This type of love is that described in 2 Thessalonians 2:10 “…and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.” This type of love is the love that casts out all fear in His children (1 John 4:18). He hasn’t given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love (yes His agape love) and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).

God’s children love Him differently than they love the world. Our love is the Greek word phileo (fil-ej’-oj) to be a friend to (fond of [an individual or an object]), i.e. have affection for (denoting personal attachment, as a matter of sentiment or feeling); a matter of the heart, to kiss, love. Mark 12:20 “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.” Indeed, this is the commandment we keep when we are His friends!

Because we are His friends, we are also brethren with those who love Him. However, we love our brethren differently than we love God, and much differently than we love our enemies. The love of the brethren is the Greek word philadelphia (fil-ad-el’-fee-ah); fraternal affection:-brotherly love (kindness), love of the brethren. 1 John 3:13-14 “Do not marvel, brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love [the brethren] abides in death.”

Enemies are not friends; they are foes. They do not love the “brethren”. Because they are enemies of the cross, they are also our enemies. They are the children of their father, the devil. John 8:44 “"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

The Word instructs us in Matthew 7:6 “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”

The Apostle Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:20-21 "O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called 'knowledge'--which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith.  Grace be with you." 

Following are pertinent scriptures that identify the characteristics/practices of the enemy (the devil, his angels and his children), how we will suffer because of their hatred of the Lord God, the promises the Lord gives us, and the fate of those who persecute Him by persecuting His children.

Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.”

Matthew 10:22 “And you will be hated by all on account of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved. But whenever they persecute you in this city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you shall not finish going through the cities of Israel, until the Son of Man comes.”

Matthew 13:25-30 “But while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went away. But when the wheat sprang up and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. And the slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ And the slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No; lest while you are gathering up the tares, you may root up the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”

Matthew 13:39 “…and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels.”

Matthew 24:9 “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations on account of My name.”

Luke 1:70-71 “As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old—‘Salvation FROM OUR ENEMIES, And FROM THE HAND OF ALL WHO HATE US;”

Luke 1:74-75 “To grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.”

Luke 6:22 “Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and cast insults at you, and spurn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man. Be glad in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets.”

Luke 10:19 “Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall injure you.”

Luke 19:27 “But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence.”

Luke 21:17-19 “…and you will be hated by all on account of My name. Yet not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.”

John 3:20 “For everyone that does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”

John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you; but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.”

John 12:25 “He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.”

John 15:18-24 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also.” Verse 25 “…THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.”

• Now, compare the truth of John 14:18-24 with Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me."  Do you think the world would treat Christ any different now than when He first came to this world and spoke and did everything His Father showed Him?  Likewise, if His Spirit lives in us and through us, we need to understand what it means that the world will hate "us", when indeed it hates "Christ in us".

Acts 13:9-10 “But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze upon him, and said, ‘You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?”

Romans 1:30 “…haters of God…” vs 32 “…that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”

Philippians 3:18 “For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.”

James 4:4-5 “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: ‘He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us’?”

1 John 3:13 "Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you."

We know that God loves the world, but can He love and HATE at the same time? Why do we struggle so with the oppression to “love” those that “hate” us and are at emnity with Jesus, our Lord? Yes, we are to pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44), but appropriate love is now clarified in this study. Let’s look at a couple of scriptures that show that indeed God HATES, and likewise does not condemn us when we hate what He hates.

Proverbs 3:34 "Though He scoffs at the scoffers, Yet He gives grace to the afflicted."

Romans 9:13 “Just as it is written, ‘JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.’”

Romans 12:9 "Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good."

Hebrews 1:9 "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy."

Revelation 2:6 [God to the church in Ephesus] “Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”  

About our enemies

1.    They come and sow tares among the wheat (try to keep us from growing and flourishing).

2.    They hate Jesus, who is the light.

3.    They love their life.

4.    They do not know God and hate Him .

5.    They not only practice the things worthy of death, but also give hearty approval to those who do the same.

6.    They make crooked the ways of the Lord.

7.    They are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.

8.    They have friendship (agape) with the world, which makes them an enemy of Christ.

Enemies of God’s Children

1.    They hate us without a cause.

2.    They ostracize us, and cast insults at us, and spurn our names as evil.

3.    They trample that which is holy and will tear us to pieces (if we give them anything holy).

4.    It is their desire to deliver us to tribulation and kill us.

5.    They persecute us.

The fate of our enemies

1.    The two final witnesses will exercise power to devour, kill, and bring plagues on them.

2.    Like tares, they will be bound in bundles and burned up (Hell).

3.    Because they do not love the “brethren” (God’s children), they abide in death.

4.    They are slain in His presence.

5.    Their end is DESTRUCTION.

God’s Promises to His Children

1.    We will have salvation from our enemies and from the hands of all who hate us.

2.    We will be delivered from the hands of our enemies.

3.    He has given us authority.

4.    Not a hair of our heads will perish.

5.    He has anointed us with the oil of gladness above our companions.

6.    Be glad and joyful; we are blessed because our reward is great in heaven.

7.    Do not marvel.

8.    Do not give what is holy to dogs or cast our pearls before swine.

9.    Endure to the end and we will gain our lives.

10.  Flee to the next city when we are persecuted.

11.  If we hate this life, we will keep it to life eternal. 

When we are told that the greatest Spiritual gift we possess is LOVE (1 Corinthians 13:13), that word is agape (friendship/charity) with Jesus and His children. We, as Jesus, do not need to struggle with loving our enemies this way, but we are to love them in the agapao way.

To love with charity, we see what God calls His children to do unto our brethren in Matthew 25:34-40 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’

Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.”