“For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.”
(Titus 3:3)
If you haven’t noticed, America is swimming in hate.
Hatred, anger and animosity have now become our national pastime. Gone are the days when we were known for baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet; our trademark has now become UFC, Red Bull, Buffalo Wings, and an Armalite AR-15.
Headlines and news reports drip of our disdain for one another: Donald hates Hillary, Hillary hates Donald. Cops hate Blacks, Blacks hate Cops. ISIS hates the World, the World hates ISIS. Republicans hate Democrats, Everyone hates Republicans. Even Dogs publicly hate Cats, you can watch it on Youtube.
I have even found this hatred leaking into our everyday relationships. Tranquility and kindness toward your neighbor is no longer a common thing, something to be expected. Social media has thrown fuel on this raging fire of jealousy, misunderstanding, outright slander and even ridicule of your closest friends and family. Don’t go on Twitter if taking a bath in a cesspool is not your thing. Hatred abounds there.
Where has this anger come from? And how do we stop it? Because if we don’t stop it, I am afraid we will all want to start living in a tiny house alone in the woods…and that is not good, we were made for community, we were made to love.
Origins of Hate
To find the origin of hatred we need to go back to the very first hostile relationship, brother against brother, Cain and Abel. Genesis 4 tells the woeful story of two siblings who were both seeking the favor of God. Cain gave God some grain, Abel a fattened calf. God smiled on Abel which caused Cain to frown:
“So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.” (Genesis 4:5)
That is where hatred first reared its ugly head. In the heart of a man who felt rejected. Jealousy and Envy – – the wood that fuels the fire of rage. All through the Bible you see it; someone has what someone wants, tempers flare, hatred is born. James 4:1-3 sums up the origin of hatred like this:
“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”
See, it is all very simple to understand,
- Person A has something Person B wants. So Person B is mad at Person A.
- Person A is stopping Person B from doing what he wants. So Person B is mad at Person A.
- Group A is a threat to Group B’s way of life. So Group B finds distinguishing marks that identify Group A’s uniqueness (race, religion, riches, right side of the railroad tracks) and casts derogatory labels and vitriol against Group A.
I am not saying Group A, or Person A is always right – – but when jealousy and envy bite Person B, they bite him hard! Like a bunch of children fighting over a single toy, humanity just can’t leave each other and their stuff alone. I read a recent article called “The Dumbest Idea” by Thomas Sowell (A black man I respect so I am not accused of racism. But he is capitalist so I probably will be accused of harboring the sin of conservatism) and he cited a silly example which perfectly illustrates how hatred in our society is produced. It is rather illogical and sad. Here is what he writes,
“A recent article in the New York Times saw as a problem the fact that females are greatly under-represented among the highest rated chess players. Innumerable articles, TV stories and political outcries have been based on an “under-representation” of women in Silicon Valley, seen as a problem that needs to be solved.
Are there girls out there dying to play chess, who find the doors slammed shut in their faces? Are there women with Ph.D.s in computer science from M.I.T. and Cal Tech who get turned away when they apply for jobs in Silicon Valley? Are girls and boys not allowed to have different interests?… Are women and men not to be allowed to make different decisions as to how they choose to spend their time and live their lives?”
The problem for people these days is when it seems like someone or some group has something the other person or other group doesn’t have. But it has gotten worse because we now have a group of people who have become society’s great “equalizer’s”. If Person A has something Person B does not have, Person C, the great “equalizer” is going to make it his or her duty to make sure Person B has what Person A has.
But it keeps going. Person C demands Person A to not just give what he has to Person B, but he has to pay Person C for forcing Person A to give to Person B. But it gets worse: Person C wants Person B to see him as their own personal hero for extracting from Person A what Person B wants.
But what if Person B could care a less about what Person A has? Well, it takes away from the importance of Person C, so Person B must care. Person B must join the movement and join with Person C to ridicule, accuse, and eventually shame Person A into giving what they have to Person B. So Person A gives to Person B by way of Person C – – how much do you think Person C keeps for himself? He doesn’t have to say because he is Person C, the great crusader for Person B, the “equalizer”, the only one who cares.
So where really is hate coming from? You could say Person B, but if the truth be told it is Person C because hatred fuels his profit. If Person A doesn’t give to Person B, Person B will often learn to find other means. But he need not worry, Person C is always lurking in the shadows demanding justice.
Is Person C ever good? Sure, but remember who pays him and how hatred helps him. Person C wants things too – – because he too is human. Is Person A always good? No, and there are times when Person A does set up rules to gain and keep more than Person B, but Person C wants us always to see Person A as the villain because it helps his cause. Is Person B always bad? No, the Bible wants us to do what we can for Person B, however, we are supposed to do it with no benefit for ourselves. If Person B fears God he soon realizes he also has God as his helper and according to Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”
The saddest thing of all is when Person B sees Person C as his savior. Person C loves the accolades and admiration, which he knows can be ramped up even more by hatred.
Heaven, Hell and Hate
Proverbs 16:7 is something our society desperately needs to hear, “When a man’s ways please the Lord he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? But it is telling us all there is a way you can bring heaven to earth. Try it. Pleasing God means…
- If you are Person A, “it is better to give than receive.”
- If you are Person B, “You shall not covet.”
- If you are Person C, “Aspire to live quietly and mind your own affairs.”
Hatred is inevitable, we are human, but it doesn’t need to control us, and it especially does not need to divide us. In the “Great Divorce” by C. S. Lewis, he painted hell as a place where people live miles apart and alone. Hatred causes them to separate, divide, slander and talk about each other from great distances. And the farther you move away the more divided, angry and bitter you become.
It’s funny because an interviewer asked the rebel rousing radical Saul Alinsky if he would rather live in heaven or hell? He didn’t believe in either, but he did say this, “Hell would be heaven for me. All my life I’ve been with the have-nots. Over here, if you’re a have-not, you’re short of dough. If you’re a have-not in hell, you’re short of virtue. Once I get into hell, I’ll start organizing the have-nots over there.”
See, he knows how to tap into and use the power of hatred, ramp up the jealousy, envy, bitterness – – and blame the other. Hatred is Hell realized now.
