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What is hate?

I've done a lot of thinking over the past few days since I wrote my last blog about God, Love and Hate. The more that I thought about it the more it became clear in scripture. Did you know that if you did a search of God's love in the New Testament, the majority of the time it is directly related to the cross.

*This is more comments at the bottom of this blog.

John 3:16 For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life.

John 3:35 The Father loves his Son and has put everything in his power.

John 5:20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. He will show him even greater things to do than this, and you will all be amazed.

John 10:17 "The Father loves me because I am willing to give up my life, in order that I may receive it back again.

John 14:23 Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and my Father and I will come to them and live with them.

John 15:13 The greatest love you can have for your friends is to give your life for them.

John 17:23 I in them and you in me, so that they may be completely one, in order that the world may know that you sent me and that you love them as you love me.

Romans 5:5-8 This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to us. (6) For when we were still helpless, Christ died for the wicked at the time that God chose. (7) It is a difficult thing for someone to die for a righteous person. It may even be that someone might dare to die for a good person. (8) But God has shown us how much he loves us---it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us!

1 Corinthians 2:7-9 The wisdom I proclaim is God's secret wisdom, which is hidden from human beings, but which he had already chosen for our glory even before the world was made. (8) None of the rulers of this world knew this wisdom. If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (9) However, as the scripture says, "What no one ever saw or heard, what no one ever thought could happen, is the very thing God prepared for those who love him."

2Corinthians 5:14 We are ruled by the love of Christ, now that we recognize that one man died for everyone, which means that they all share in his death.

Gal 2:20 so that it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. This life that I live now, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me.

Ephesians 1:4-5 Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be his through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before him. Because of his love (5) God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make us his children---this was his pleasure and purpose.

Eph 2:7 He did this to demonstrate for all time to come the extraordinary greatness of his grace in the love he showed us in Christ Jesus.

Eph 5:2 Your life must be controlled by love, just as Christ loved us and gave his life for us as a sweet-smelling offering and sacrifice that pleases God.

1Th 1:4 Our friends, we know that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own.

2Th 2:13 We must thank God at all times for you, friends, you whom the Lord loves. For God chose you as the first to be saved by the Spirit's power to make you his holy people and by your faith in the truth.

Titus 3:2-6 Tell them not to speak evil of anyone, but to be peaceful and friendly, and always to show a gentle attitude toward everyone. (3) For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, and wrong. We were slaves to passions and pleasures of all kinds. We spent our lives in malice and envy; others hated us and we hated them. (4) But when the kindness and love of God our Savior was revealed, (5) he saved us. It was not because of any good deeds that we ourselves had done, but because of his own mercy that he saved us, through the Holy Spirit, who gives us new birth and new life by washing us. (6) God poured out the Holy Spirit abundantly on us through Jesus Christ our Savior,

Heb 1:9 You love what is right and hate what is wrong. That is why God, your God, has chosen you and has given you the joy of an honor far greater than he gave to your companions."

Jas 1:12 Happy are those who remain faithful under trials, because when they succeed in passing such a test, they will receive as their reward the life which God has promised to those who love him.

1Jn 2:15 Do not love the world or anything that belongs to the world. If you love the world, you do not love the Father.

1Jn 3:1 See how much the Father has loved us! His love is so great that we are called God's children---and so, in fact, we are. This is why the world does not know us: it has not known God.

1Jn 3:16 This is how we know what love is: Christ gave his life for us. We too, then, ought to give our lives for others!

1Jn 4:10 This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.

1Jn 4:20 If we say we love God, but hate others, we are liars. For we cannot love God, whom we have not seen, if we do not love others, whom we have seen.
* In more accurate translations the word others is actually brothers- refering to those who are in Christ. We cannot hate those who are brothers with us in Christ because we been redeemed by the work of Christ.

Rev 3:19 I rebuke and punish all whom I love. Be in earnest, then, and turn from your sins.

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One common misunderstanding is that hate is the opposite of love. It is not. The opposite of love is the absence of love. Hate often shows that there is love. If you love freedom, you will hate being captive. If you don't love freedom, you won't care if your freedom is taken away from you. Darkness is the absence of light, not just the opposite. Cold is the absence of heat, not just the opposite. If you did not love something, you would not hate when somebody takes it way.

But hate also has to be controlled. Like fire, it is very useful when under control, but once it gets loose, it is untamable.

Another point I want to make is that even though the cross was a sign of God's love towards us, it is also a sign of hate. This may sound like a contadiction or heresy but listen to my explaination. If God did not hate, there would be no need for the cross. If God didn't love holiness and hate sin, God wouldn't be so angy with us when we sin. It was on the cross that God showed his anger towards us/sin, in that He crushed His holy Son with the wrath that was to be upon us. In doing this His anger, hatred, and justice is satisfied towards those who take refuge in what Jesus did on the cross.
I would like some discussion on this topic, just to see if I am missing the mark of what I find in scripture.