What do we mean by "hate"?

[PetrChelcicky]

Jesus was a Jew and carefully presented himself as a continuator of Jewish tradition as given in the OT. So there can be no real difference between OT and NT, or does it?
Anabapists at the crossroads!

[Soloist]

Jesus was a Jew and carefully presented himself as a continuator of Jewish tradition as given in the OT. So there can be no real difference between OT and NT, or does it?
Anabapists at the crossroads!

And there were several things that Jesus said “you have heard” almost verbatim quoting old testament law. The biggest difference is Old Testament was to a national kingdom and earthly subjects and had earthy rules to match. We now have spiritual laws and higher teaching to follow. Some were allowed for hardness of heart such as divorce and remarriage, some due to the kingdom of Israel being earthly such as an eye for an eye. Jesus interpreted for misunderstandings, raised the bar to the higher law. I would say most of the teachings of the Old Testament have to be understood through Jesus and the apostles.
Jesus Himself said “if they keep My teachings, they will keep yours also” some things are very clear but if there is one that is unquestionably true is that God ordered the nation of Israel to kill and orders us to lay down like Isaac in faith.

[Bootstrap]

Jesus was a Jew and carefully presented himself as a continuator of Jewish tradition as given in the OT. So there can be no real difference between OT and NT, or does it?
Anabapists at the crossroads!

And there were several things that Jesus said “you have heard” almost verbatim quoting old testament law. The biggest difference is Old Testament was to a national kingdom and earthly subjects and had earthy rules to match. We now have spiritual laws and higher teaching to follow. Some were allowed for hardness of heart such as divorce and remarriage, some due to the kingdom of Israel being earthly such as an eye for an eye. Jesus interpreted for misunderstandings, raised the bar to the higher law. I would say most of the teachings of the Old Testament have to be understood through Jesus and the apostles.
Jesus Himself said “if they keep My teachings, they will keep yours also” some things are very clear but if there is one that is unquestionably true is that God ordered the nation of Israel to kill and orders us to lay down like Isaac in faith.

A good example of this from the Sermon on the Mount:

Love Your Enemies

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

[silentreader]

Jesus was a Jew and carefully presented himself as a continuator of Jewish tradition as given in the OT. So there can be no real difference between OT and NT, or does it?
Anabapists at the crossroads!

And there were several things that Jesus said “you have heard” almost verbatim quoting old testament law. The biggest difference is Old Testament was to a national kingdom and earthly subjects and had earthy rules to match. We now have spiritual laws and higher teaching to follow. Some were allowed for hardness of heart such as divorce and remarriage, some due to the kingdom of Israel being earthly such as an eye for an eye. Jesus interpreted for misunderstandings, raised the bar to the higher law. I would say most of the teachings of the Old Testament have to be understood through Jesus and the apostles.
Jesus Himself said “if they keep My teachings, they will keep yours also” some things are very clear but if there is one that is unquestionably true is that God ordered the nation of Israel to kill and orders us to lay down like Isaac in faith.

A good example of this from the Sermon on the Mount:

Love Your Enemies

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

And from Matthew 22:34-40

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Deuteronomy 6:5(ESV)
38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. Leviticus 19:17-18(ESV)
40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

[Bootstrap]

Here's a response I got when asking "how do I know when I am feeling hate":

There are several signs that may indicate that you are feeling hate. Some of these include:

• Intense feelings of anger or rage towards a person or group of people
• A desire to harm or inflict harm on someone or something
• Prejudice or discrimination towards a certain group of people
• Negative thoughts or stereotypes associated with a certain group of people
• An unwillingness to understand or consider the perspectives or feelings of others
• A feeling of superiority over others

It's important to note that it's normal to have negative feelings or disagree with someone, but hate is an intense and prolonged form of this. If you find yourself struggling with intense feelings of hate, you may want to look for help.

What do you think of that from a biblical point of view? Does any of this rhyme with Jesus and the New Testament?

[Sudsy]

Here's a response I got when asking "how do I know when I am feeling hate":

There are several signs that may indicate that you are feeling hate. Some of these include:

• Intense feelings of anger or rage towards a person or group of people
• A desire to harm or inflict harm on someone or something
• Prejudice or discrimination towards a certain group of people
• Negative thoughts or stereotypes associated with a certain group of people
• An unwillingness to understand or consider the perspectives or feelings of others
• A feeling of superiority over others

It's important to note that it's normal to have negative feelings or disagree with someone, but hate is an intense and prolonged form of this. If you find yourself struggling with intense feelings of hate, you may want to look for help.

What do you think of that from a biblical point of view? Does any of this rhyme with Jesus and the New Testament?

Not sure I agree that these are all signs of hating someone. I can have negative thoughts about someone and/or don't care about how they feel and/or feeling superior over others and yet not have any desire to harm them. I view hate as a strong desire in some way(s) to harm someone over something.

To rise above our fleshly thoughts of hating we have the Holy Spirit who convicts us of when we are thinking hatefully and then it is up to us to repent and ask the Holy Spirit to help us with our outlook towards others. He is our Helper to overcome any thoughts of hating others. He also helps us to hate sin, which is a proper way to hate.

[Ken]

Here's a response I got when asking "how do I know when I am feeling hate":

There are several signs that may indicate that you are feeling hate. Some of these include:

• Intense feelings of anger or rage towards a person or group of people
• A desire to harm or inflict harm on someone or something
• Prejudice or discrimination towards a certain group of people
• Negative thoughts or stereotypes associated with a certain group of people
• An unwillingness to understand or consider the perspectives or feelings of others
• A feeling of superiority over others

It's important to note that it's normal to have negative feelings or disagree with someone, but hate is an intense and prolonged form of this. If you find yourself struggling with intense feelings of hate, you may want to look for help.

What do you think of that from a biblical point of view? Does any of this rhyme with Jesus and the New Testament?

Not sure I agree that these are all signs of hating someone. I can have negative thoughts about someone and/or don't care about how they feel and/or feeling superior over others and yet not have any desire to harm them. I view hate as a strong desire in some way(s) to harm someone over something.

I agree. As a UW grad I feel superior to UO grads, but I don't "hate" them. Mennonites feel superior to Baptists but don't hate them.

If I were to come up with a definition without looking at the dictionary, I would say:

Hate is to feel animosity towards another person or group which can be expressed in a wide variety of ways, including....

a desire to inflict harm on others
prejudice or discrimination towards others
negative thoughts or stereotype of others
lack of sympathy or empathy for others
feeling superior to others
desire to avoid contact with others (segregation)
etc.

[steve-in-kville]

Here's a response I got when asking "how do I know when I am feeling hate":

There are several signs that may indicate that you are feeling hate. Some of these include:

• Intense feelings of anger or rage towards a person or group of people
• A desire to harm or inflict harm on someone or something
• Prejudice or discrimination towards a certain group of people
• Negative thoughts or stereotypes associated with a certain group of people
• An unwillingness to understand or consider the perspectives or feelings of others
• A feeling of superiority over others

It's important to note that it's normal to have negative feelings or disagree with someone, but hate is an intense and prolonged form of this. If you find yourself struggling with intense feelings of hate, you may want to look for help.

What do you think of that from a biblical point of view? Does any of this rhyme with Jesus and the New Testament?

This is not directly answering the question, but I think human nature has it that we "scapegoat" groups of people in almost any environment. For anyone that has done shift work, there is always that one shift that gets hated on and blamed for all that goes wrong.

We also do it with race or even religious groups. Some people hate on Catholics or Jews. People may blame the Spanish-speaking types for the drug epidemic. I think we all do this some extent.

[Sudsy]

Can there be any room in a believer's heart to hate another human ?

1 John 4:20

If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

[PetrChelcicky]

Here's a response I got when asking "how do I know when I am feeling hate":

There are several signs that may indicate that you are feeling hate. Some of these include:

• Intense feelings of anger or rage towards a person or group of people
• A desire to harm or inflict harm on someone or something
• Prejudice or discrimination towards a certain group of people
• Negative thoughts or stereotypes associated with a certain group of people
• An unwillingness to understand or consider the perspectives or feelings of others
• A feeling of superiority over others

It's important to note that it's normal to have negative feelings or disagree with someone, but hate is an intense and prolonged form of this. If you find yourself struggling with intense feelings of hate, you may want to look for help.

What do you think of that from a biblical point of view? Does any of this rhyme with Jesus and the New Testament?

Most of those signs are modern nonsense:
- There is a general mixture of reasonable thinking on the one side and feelings on the other side.

- Reasonable thinking implies that I look at a person's behaviour as positive or negative (w.r.t. an outcome), that I see some persons as superior to others (w.r.t. a particular function or ability) and that I do prognoses about how people will probably behave (according to what I see or know of them and what experiences I have made before with "similar" people) - which is the definition of prejudice and stereotype).
I would not give up any of those reasonable habits which are important for personal success and for the evolution of a human civilisation. I would not give them up even if the N.T. did demand that - but I don't see that the N.T. demands it.

- A complete different matter are negative feelings. The best way to control oneself is: Which feelings have I when I see the fortune or misfortune of someone else? Do I begrudge his fortune? Or am I glad about his misfortune? In both cases I am at a slippery slope into what might become intense hate.

As for identity groups: If an id.group is defined by certain moral standards we of course can apply those moral standards to its members. If the id. group is not defined by moral standards - most id. groups are not - we have no right to apply higher standards to our co-members than to non-members.