A “series of questions”:http://www.xanga.com/godchaesr/402392715/god-loves-me-god-hates-me-at-the-same-time.html thrown out by “godchaesr”:http://www.xanga.com/godchaesr:
bq. could it be that hatred and love are not opposites? could God love someone and hate them at the same time? What is hatred? How would you define it? Could we define it as complete/total disagreement with?
These questions prompted me to take out my “Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary”:http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=xD6JwZSChB&isbn=0785211608&itm=2 and conduct a little bit of research. There are several ways that the word ‘hate’ is used throughout the Bible.
The first (and most common among Americans) refers to a strong sense of jealousy — everything from bitter disdain to outright hatred. Another use of the word is “ingressive”:http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=ingress, specifically, in this context, of beginning to hate, of initiating these adverse feelings. A weaker sense of the word indicates being set against something, as in hating, or being set against, murder, crime, sin, etc. ‘Hate’ can also mean to be unloved, untrustworthy, may indicate failing marital relations or alienation, and may indicate a preference of one person or thing over another.
To answer the first question — _’could it be that hatred and love are not opposites?’_ — in some cases they are, at least humanly speaking. Typically, when a person says they hate someone, there are no feelings of love in their hearts whatsoever, though, of course, this is not always the case, since saying, ‘I hate you’ can actually mean ‘I really dislike you right now.’ God Himself does not hate His creation with outright hatred, though He may hate in the sense of setting Himself against something or someone. So the second question is answered — _could God love someone and hate them at the same time?_ — by recognizing that God loves all people, though He may be set against them at times or prefer one over another (see, Israel, Esau, etc.). The last questions — _What is hatred? How would you define it? Could we define it as complete/total disagreement with?_ — have, to some extent, already been covered merely by elaborating on the research. Several definitions and uses have been laid out above? Could we define it as complete/total disagreement with? Yes. Yes, I think we can, though it would be considered a weaker use of the word. Such a use would probably fall under the same sort of header as ‘set against’, since the times in history that God was set against Israel was when they went against His directives. God had to set Himself against them for a time to bring them back to Himself.
Good questions, godchaesr.
