It’s hard not to hate. Which is exactly what the world wants us to feel. I’m not simply talking about feeling angry (although the two are not unrelated).1 I’m talking the way we’re all being shaped by what we consume and who we listen to. Hatred causes us to feel revulsion and disgust toward others. It reduce people’s identities, and their value, into something lesser. To make everything a matter of division and conflict. Us vs them. Hate your enemies. Don’t seek their best—seek their end.
It’s tempting to write off the rhetoric we see all around us as hyperbole. And without a doubt, social media and, increasingly, all media thrives on hyperbole. But when everything is heightened to the most extreme degree, hyperbole becomes the norm.2
“The Tongue is a Fire…”
Hatred is powerful. It is seductive, a powerful drug that, in the moment, feels good. It is a cheap thrill that fades quickly, and leaves us wanting more. And like any drug, the more we use it, the more we need to feel that same thrill we did at the first, until, finally, it consumes us. Hatred feels good for a moment, but in the end it destroys us.
Christians are not immune to the allure of hatred. We are, after all, human. Sadly, over the last decade—and especially over the last 10 months—many of us have embraced it, particularly in the name of partisan politics. We are quick to divide, resort to name-calling, and demonize those we disagree with.3 Charlie Kirk’s murder has only made this bad situation worse.4 When I look at the rhetoric of Christians online, I can’t help but remember James’s warning:
And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell (James 3:6 NKJV).
The way we use our words reveals so much about our hearts; our words betray us and condemn us. We cannot love God and hate our “enemies” (Matthew 5:43–44). We cannot say we love God and hate our brothers (1 John 4:20–21). “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34 NKJV). If hatred is our default language, if we delight in unleashing a world of iniquity, then the truth of God is not in us, no matter what else we might profess (1 John 2:4).
Reclaiming the Better Way
Throughout history, God’s people have wrestled with the temptation toward hatred. It’s hard to imagine Judah’s exiles not feeling this way toward their Babylonian captors. Yet what did the Lord charge them to pursue in their captivity? The good of Babylon:
Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace (Jeremiah 29:5–7 NKJV)
Rather than commanding the exiles to wage war against the Babylonians, God told the people to love them. To be for them, rather than against them. To seek their good as peacemakers (Matthew 5:9). “For in its peace you will have peace.”
This charge remains today both inside and outside the church. As followers of Jesus, we are “exiles” or “sojourners” in this world (1 Peter 1:1), citizens of another kingdom charged with imploring those around us to be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20–21). And that word implore means to beg—to plead with someone you dearly love. To demonstrate our love in both our words and our works. To be for them, rather than against them.
This is a more difficult road. But it is the only road available to followers of Jesus. So to my brothers and sisters in Christ, I implore you: “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice” (Ephesians 4:31 NKJV). Hatred is powerful. But love is more powerful still.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
- I’m also not talking about the holy hatred that typifies God’s view of sin or the charge to hate evil and love good (see Proverbs 6:16–19; Amos 5:15). ↩︎
- Though when President Trump said, “I hate my opponents, and I don’t want the best for them” during the Charlie Kirk memorial event, he wasn’t being hyperbolic, as his career has shown. ↩︎
- This is an equal opportunity sin with “Demoncrat,” “Libtard,” “Woke,” “Marxist,” “Homophobe,” “Racist,” and “Fascist” being among the most popular from the political right and the left. ↩︎
- I’m not interested in debating the character or views of this young man whose life was tragically cut short. I have concerns about his methods and his message, but, like all of us, he was more complicated than simplistic divisions would have us believe. ↩︎
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