Instead the NT uses ‘hate’ to describe the attitude of some have toward Christ and His people: “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake.” (Luke 21:17) It also describes the attitude we can have if God is not put first in our lives, and even if He is put first.
No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Luke 16:13)
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26)
Without using that word, today’s reading implies that God hates worldliness and points to this passage:
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:15–17)
This does not say God hates the world, but that we are not supposed to love it. The Greek words used in these verses and in the well-known verse: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16) are the same words: agape (love) and cosmos (world).
In the longer passage, the problem is not the world but the sinful cravings common to the world, and that we are not to ‘love’ this in the same way that God loved the world and gave Himself for it. Instead, we are to give ourselves and that love to the people of the world, recognizing the difference between the love of God (humble, obedient, sacrificial) and the love popularized in the world (proud, do my own thing, me first).
That false love is not from God, will not last, and has nothing to do with the life of Christ that is in me. These verses do not say that God hates anything, but is a warning to distinguish what I am to ‘love’ and give my life toward. He died to set me free from living from worldly desires, a Greek word for “evil cravings” — and as one in whom Christ lives, that desire is changed so that I want to love what God loves. I just need to recognize what that is!
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. (Colossians 1:13)
The lies that can lead me astray come from Satan, the father of lies and the one who opposes all that is of God. He wants to destroy my faith and lead me away into worldly cravings, but God says, “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)
PRAY: This devotional ends with, “Praise God that someday Satan and his evil system will be vanquished.” In You, Jesus, this has already happened. Even though the Bible warns that “In later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1) it also says, “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.” (1 Corinthians 2:12) My focus is on You, not on what You hate but on what You love. I don’t want to be a Christian who rants about all the evil in the world — Satan does not deserve any free publicity. Instead, I want to honor You by loving You with all my heart and giving my life to love that which You love.
PONDER: I don’t need to study the lies and the negatives to be able to quickly spot and avoid them. Instead, I need to know the truth so well that all that is evil stands out in sharp contrast to the goodness of Jesus Christ.
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