How can we understand Jesus' use of the word "hate" when his message and ministr

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   joelmlayposted 12 years ago

   How can we understand Jesus' use of the word "hate" when his message and ministry were about love?
   
   When Jesus said "if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters..." (Luke 14:26) was he actually calling for hatred?
   
   

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   Saintatlargeposted 12 years ago

   To help you out, we have to understand the context and also that Greek to English often loses its entire meaning. The word is 'Miseo'. It could probably be better translated as "having a hatred for the things that my Father and Mother may attend their hearts to", if they do not happen to agree with coming to Jesus. Remember Jesus is talking to the Jews here, and not directly to us as the Gentile nations. Excommunication within the Jewish family would be a natural occurrence for those who followed Jesus. Separation would have caused a rift in the hearts of all concerned, and going back to your family and allowing them to dominate over your convictions would be the concern I believe. He was also making a point that they were to not be partial in their belief or having one foot in and one foot out. If God is calling you out, you make every effort to stick with your new conviction. He was expressing the importance of the relationship with God. The Jews at the time were really overpowered by all the law and additions to the law passed down for the past 400 years under the authority of the teachers, Jesus continually condemned. The family of the new believers would also be under a serious constraint of separation do to the regulations applied by the teachers also; that they would not be allowed to associate themselves with these new converts, and not be able to participate in Jewish customs, regulations, temple activities etc. Paul in regard to us as Gentiles tells us to come out and be separated from the activities, customs, of those who did detestable things... or hating the things that God hates. So there is something beneath the surface here that God hated and that is what we have to understand. Loving him with our "ALL" means exactly that. We make a choice to not waver in our desire to truly love him, with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. We cannot serve two masters and we are to also hate even our own lives, meaning hating anything that would bring in a separation from him. Strong words for a time when it was needed. Roman influences, Israel's domination by a foreign power, they had completely lost their purpose and fellowship with God and were undermined by many outside regulations, practices, intermarriage, and the like. These were desperate times and Jesus was calling for a serious account of the heart. Long answer, but I hope it helped give some understanding to it's content. Blessings L.

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      joelmlayposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for useful information, especially with regard to the difficulty of translation from one language to another. It would be equally difficult to explain Romans 9:13 which quotes Malachi 1:3 with God saying, "Jacob I loved, but Essau I hated".

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   lone77starposted 12 years ago

   Awesome question and equally awesome answer by @Saintatlarge. I learned something pretty cool, here.
   
   I particularly agree with the context being important to understanding.
   
   In the case of Malachi 1:3 with God saying, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated," we have to remember that God originally talked to their mother while they were still in the womb -- judging that Esau (the elder) would serve Jacob (the younger, by a few seconds). Why did God "hate" an unborn child?
   
   I have thought long and hard about this and other enigmas in the Bible. After half a century, I think I have an answer that is elegant and loving.
   
   Every place in the Bible where it talks of God's hate, retribution or vengeance, it's not talking about human emotions. How could it? God isn't human.
   
   God created the physical laws of causality -- every aspect of this action-reaction reality. If someone disobeys these laws, they pay the penalty. If we were talking about humans, "hate" may be involved. Murder someone and you might have a lynch mob after you.
   
   With God, it's completely different. For a suicide perpetrator to step off of a 20-story building, they go splat on the pavement. That's God "hating" them at the velocity of impact. That's the collision of God's laws of the solidity of matter, and gravity, colliding with the person's choice (decision).
   
   Why would God "hate" Esau?
   
   Another part of scripture seems to apply, here. Jesus said that those who live by the sword will die by the sword. There was no equivocation. But what about all those criminals who die peacefully of old age without dying by the sword? Was Jesus lying? Mistaken? Of course not.
   
   Numbers 14:18 tells us about the sins of the fathers. I've always wondered about the innocent children paying for the crimes of their ancestors. Not so. Read it again, carefully. It's saying the same thing as live by the sword, die by the sword. Karma and reincarnation.
   
   The everlasting life Jesus promised us is freedom from these things.
   
   But likely Esau cheated someone of their birthright and that evil hung around his prenatal neck, condemning him in the eyes of God. He broke the law and pays for his own crimes. He is the child of the 3rd and 4th generation after the father who committed the original crime.
   
   So, when anything bad happens to you, you must be grateful to God. You must turn the other cheek. You must accept 100% responsibility, blaming no one. Only then can you be free of being victim and becoming perpetrator

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   PrometheusKidposted 12 years ago

   The Tiara Of Rome has destroyed the meaning of Jesus message, it has been destroyed and diluted where it has become a joke.

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