Hatred, from a spiritual standpoint, is rebellion from authority. Everyone desires unfettered freedom, and if it doesn't exist, anger ensues. The expression of anger reveals the emotions of the heart. Anger is the expression of anger, and control is the cause. People just don't want to be controlled. Original sin was mankind's attempt to be emancipated from control. Ironically, there was just one law from which Adam and Eve desired emancipation: don't eat of the forbidden tree (Gen 2:17). Why was that one regulation so important? To see if the creatures would accept God's authority. Satan had not; would the human creatures? They would not.
Adam and Eve did what they wanted to do. They bucked authority. Certainly they didn't find God to be disgusting but they showed hatred for His authority. They didn't want to be governed. Thus, my definition of spiritual hatred is strictly irreverence for God's authority. Therefore, love is respecting God's authority. Individuals love each other by respecting their humanity. The sanctity of life is imperative. Individuals emit hatred for others by disrespect for them as persons. The ultimate love is as God's: that none should perish. The ultimate hatred is that all should perish, and most humans hate by desiring that some should perish.
Why would anyone wish that another perish at all? Because their will interferes with our will. Essentially, hatred is defying the authority of another. Think not? Tell your spouse that he or she needs to change. Will they love you for it? Most will not. Such provocation evokes disgust which we have seen is hatred. The attempt to control the life of another person provokes hatred. No one wants to be controlled!
"And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Ephes 6:4). That passage is the textbook example of restrictive governance is provocation to violence. Rules that are unfair or even seem to be provokes children to anger and anger is the expression of hatred. All three of my children, when they were teenagers, told me that they hated me (i.e., they found me to be disgusting). Why so? I provoked them to hate me! Were my rules unfair? No they were not; it is a human response to buck authority. (When they became adults all three thanked me for bringing them up right.)
Now, for the hatred we see today: People hate each other today as much as ever. Not more so but as intensely. Modern-day hatred is nothing new. When Noah was building the ark, everyone jeered him. Jeering is an expression of hatred. They hated Noah because he obeyed God! People still hate righteous people because they should themselves be obeying God. God is hated so much although His will still condenses to one rule: love Me. It is important to understand that the demonstration of love is being servile to God's authority. He has one metric for demonstrating love for Him: love one another. We can't seem to be able to do that!
I believe the intense hatred that we see at the present is due to one thing: Some do not like any control over themselves but desire that others be controlled. In other words, every person feels that they don't need rules but everyone else does. No one likes the rules of others but accept their own self-imposed rules. Scripture says, "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Jud 21:25).
Everyone wants to do what they want to do, but control provokes them to wrath. Natural law comes from the Law of God, and our law comes from natural law. We found out early on that mankind must be controlled or they become like brute beasts. (2 Pet 2:12). Beasts turn on their prey. They devour one another. Brute beasts have a natural inclination to destroy whatever they will. Haters are much like that!
We see the brute beasts all the time. They shoot and kill human people, decapitate some, and blow others up with destructive bombs. Thankfully, in the west those are few! The remainder of the beasts merely show disgust for those who control them. It seems, foremost, that people hate control by God. Christians and Jews are hated terribly because of the Law of God. Ironically, those who espouse love are often the worst haters. It is their own standards they use, and not God's.
God understood hatred. He knew that men would find His rules disgusting and issued an edict: "Be self-controlled and sober-minded" (1 Pet 4:7). God realized that people would reject his authority and assigned them to control themselves. "Sober-mindedness" is realizing that they might think they are gods but they are not. Self-control requires God's assistance. When people come to realize that, they are sober in their thinking.
The United States was founded on control. People need rules and regulations. Knowing that, the founders wrote a Constitution. Why did they do that?
Our founders thought the English Parliament's laws to be unjust. Unfairness provoked the wrath of the patriots. They rebelled because they hated the king's law and sought emancipation. Being civil men, and many righteous, the wrath was righteous indignation. Their hatred was not toward parliamentarians or even the king but against tyranny. Many rebels had good relationships with members of parliament.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
Today, civility has gone by the wayside. Not only do people hate authority but those in authority. Like the people jeering Noah, the beasts jeer our president because he upholds the laws of the land.
The law of the land is the Constitution. There is a way to change the laws of the land. It is through amendments. Many have changed the law. The Bill of Rights was approval for the law of the land, and were the people's exceptions. That's how civil people do things.
Beasts intimidate and harm. Some merely roar but others emote hatred. That's where we are now. People seek to live as they will and resent authority. That is love of self and hatred for those who endeavor to govern them.
It seems that the laws which provoke people to the most anger are rules which limit abortions. Many want the right to kill their offspring for any reason. The U.S. Declaration of Independence rejected that argument and people fought for life: "They (people) are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
How beasts get around that right is by denying the personhoods of the unborn. In their eyes, the unborn are not people but mere tissue. We all know that to be false. There is no right to abort but there is a right to life and people died for that right. People who find children no more than an inconvenience become brute beasts. They destroy their offspring as even some animals do instinctively, and despise those who honor the intent of the Constitution. Rebellious people become unruly because they despise rules and those who make them!
Immigration is another divisive issue. The U.S. has laws however deficient they may be. The "beasts" want the law ignored just because that is their will. In turn, they hate those who enforce the laws of the land. Hatred of the police is because people hate authority. Nothing has changed since Adam! The object of hatred is always those who enforce the laws. I remember that tiring of 40 speeding tickets, I began to hate the law. I even at times hated the officer who enforced the law! I was a law unto myself. That's what most people want - self-governance. That doesn't work because self-imposed civility always conflicts with the standards of others. People need laws to protect us from others and even ourselves!
Trump is the object of hatred at the moment. People despise him because they don't want to accept his authority. They despise the man just because he has the office! We know that because before he ran for president, the haters mingled with him and accepted his money enthusiastically. Their hatred for him is because regulation provokes hatred. People hate to be controlled.
Some say that one side is more uncivil than others. That is not true! Christians are mostly of the right and conservative. You don't see them out intimidating by hatred and signs with F-words. You don't see them out harassing innocent people. Don't be dumb. We know who the worst haters are!
Some point to those with guns who shoot as representative of the right. That is not true and people know that! What we see on the news are two types of protests: (1) angry left-wing mobs spewing hatred, and (2) upset right-wing Christians being civil with self-control. What we see is left-wing leaders provoking hatred. You may see some, but you don't see many conservatives doing that.
Some accuse Trump of provoking violence and hatred. That is an accusation but the left seems to define their own standards. They have become "as gods" as the Serpent foretold. Any observant person should be able to detect hatred. Sometimes I hate and you do too. However, civil people have self-control, but the unruly mob has none!
Division is a tactic of Satan. We witnessed the divisiveness of the left. Hillary spoke of the "basket of deplorables". That should provoke violence from the right but it did not because the right is civil. We heard Obama many times criticize Christians and Christianity. That should have provoked Christians, but it didn't. We had self-control. We were civil to Obama although we hated his antipathy for the rules.
We heard Biden want to take Trump behind the barn and fight it out. That should have provoked Trump but he was not!
We heard Corey Booker provoking. We were only provoked to abhor that provocation. That's what civil people do. Haters go into the streets and hate. Who does that? The "progressives", ironically, who are the most regressive. They are the beasts! They need a lot of Jesus.
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