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One cannot love something without hating its opposite. The Scriptures duly honor this axiom (Psa. 97:10; Mat. 6:24, et al.). It is not wrong to have strong feelings of hatred, depending on the object of our hate. Solomon listed seven specific things which God hates (Pro. 6:16). We can discover the things Christ hated by observing the things which He loved. For example. He loved the truth as an entity, a principle. Contrary to blasphemous philosophers who assert the nonexistence of absolute, objective Truth, Christ knew that there was and ever taught so (John 8:31–32; 14:6; 16:13; 17:17).
Since He so loved Truth, He necessarily loathed and despised that which was false. He warned of false prophets and of the false teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees (Mat. 7:15; 15:6, 8;16:11–12). His preaching life was one of continuous debate with and refutation of religious errorists. He faithfully fought the battle against religious error because He knew its end was damnation (Mat. 15:14). If our Lord so despised error, can His followers do less?
Consider some implications of Jesus’ hatred of error:
- There are such things as “truth” and “error” — there is a distinction. The careless behavior and doctrine of many brethren implies that error is just as good as Truth. Let us never forget that Christ died for the difference between Truth and error.
- It is not “unloving” to expose, to preach against and to refute error. Nor is it “unloving” to expose those who promote error, whether through their silence or their statement. Christ never refused this duty, even though He offended the Pharisees and lost some disciples in the process (Mat. 15:12–14; John 6:66).
- The Truth needs defending when under attack, otherwise the Lord would not have consistently defended it.
- The Lord’s church would be much stronger if we would follow the example and teachings of Jesus in dealing with religious error. One’s love for the Truth must be suspect if he does not hate and oppose error!
[Note: I wrote this article for and it was published in The Edifier, weekly bulletin of Pearl Street Church of Christ, Denton, TX, June 23, 1988, of which I was editor.]
Attribution: From thescripturecache.com; Dub McClish, owner and administrator
