Why?

Let's look at the mechanism of hate. History has given us many individuals who could fulfill the role of "deserving receivers of our hate." They appear quite regularly like pimples on the body of the human race. And, like pimples, they come for a time and then they are gone. Usually, however, even as one is leaving, another is arriving. Time seems to be playing tricks with us. Hate Ivan the Terrible...no, hate the Confederacy, hate the Union, hate Adolph Hitler...no, hate Charles Manson...and hate the Unabomber and hate Sadam Hussein and hate Osama Bin Ladan...and hate and hate.

Besides individuals, we are supplied with large segments of the population to hate as well. In 1944 it was acceptable to hate the Japanese, and the Germans. In the 50s, the Koreans and the Russians, in the late 50s, the Blacks and the Whites. On and on it goes, we are told who we must hate on almost a daily basis. What is really going on here?

In the Prodigal Son story, Jesus shared what happened when one son asked for his father's inheritance and squandered it in a foreign land. Jesus shared this story to illustrate that, though his son had made a really bad choice, when he decided to swallow his pride and come back to his father, his father welcomed him back with open arms. For a while, though, when the son was in exile, the son felt that his father was going to punish him severely. The Prodigal Son story illustrates that, when we return to Him, we didn't need to worry about reprisals from our Father. He, too, will welcome us back into His arms, through our Lord and Savior, Jesus.

When Adam and Eve fell from the Garden, officially beginning the separation from God, they certainly were guilty, weren't they? We, the tainted ancestors of Adam and Eve, have, no doubt, felt guilty about it ever since. There is a residual shame that has filtered down from the beginning of time. In this world, since Adam and Eve lost their lease, we still feel we are living "apart" from God and, often, still feel guilty about that.

Jesus is the sacrificial lamb who died for us, to relieve us from all guilt. Once we give our lives to Jesus, the guilt must go. Unfortunately, it is possible to go through the ritual of being saved but still not give our lives completely over to Jesus, and consequently, we still keep the guilt. This, of course, opens us up to Satan, who is empowered when we keep carnality for ourselves. We make our garden fertile for his weeds of self-repulsion. This self-repulsion is unbearable to us as God never intended us to carry the burden of guilt. When we refuse to relinquish all of our carnality to Jesus and, instead, keep some of it for ourselves, guilt happens. We, then, in a type of denial then projection, look for other people to blame for our problems, rather than knowing the truth—that Jesus is the solution no matter what the problem. Satan's fruit, in the process of our projecting our own unresolved inner carnality onto other people, is more and more guilt. Because we cannot bear guilt, we manifest it as hate toward others.

The fruit of giving our lives over to Jesus, is love, unconditional love for everyone. Even those who demonstrate a complete lack of morals, total disregard for human life, and shun all sense of civilized behavior. They can't be saved or even changed by our hating them. Jesus asked us to pray for those who behave badly or who persecute us. Once again, the result of our listening to Satan and harboring guilt is judgment of others and the fruit of that is hate. Satan tightens his grip on our hearts by tempting us to contribute to the madness of the world. Jesus loosens Satan's grip, effortlessly because that is why God sent His Son to us. Jesus frees us from all temptation so that we walk, fully aware that God is ruling our lives, not Satan.

When this guilt is festering in our souls, and we have not yet decided to follow Christ to the cross and let Him relieve our burdens, we find ourselves looking around with evil intentions, to find a scapegoat so that our guilt might be removed. This scapegoat works almost like the first scapegoat mentioned in Leviticus, where Aaron had to lay his hands on the goat's head, allowing all the iniquities (sins) of the people to go into that goat. Aaron would then send that goat into the wilderness forever, thereby relieving the people of their sins.

When we feel the guilt of separation from our Father but are afraid our Father will smite us, we are in a spiritual twilight zone where anything can happen. We look around for someone to blame, anyone, it doesn't matter. And it doesn't matter whether the reasons for the blame make sense or not. If the truth be known, and we could step back from this process just a little, we'd see that we simply cannot handle holding onto the guilt of our separation from God, so we must blame someone (anyone, really) so that we can feel relieved of the burden of guilt. The problem with this approach is that it won't work. As with anything with Satan behind it, it merely provides a temporary sense of relief then, in a mighty wave of self-disgust, the temptation to blame others (for anything, it doesn't matter), returns again.

When we harbor anything that is not of the Lord, we are opening ourselves up to the great deceiver. It becomes his ticket to ride in our souls as we take control away from the Lord whom we have given our lives to and ponder what to do with our minds. Hate is a choice but there is another choice that can be made.

Jesus is the last choice. If we truly have love in our hearts, we are relishing in the fruit of Christ reigning fully in our lives. If we hate either one person or a large segment of society, then Satan has gripped our hearts, because the door to our souls was left ajar by the guilt we refused to let Jesus take. He died for our sins and guilt. The price is paid. Giving our lives over to Him completely, allows Him to remove the piercing and painful thorns of guilt and its fruit, hate, from our lives. We can be saved AND harbor the guilt that comes from not being saved. If we have found “scapepeople” to unload our sin of separation from God upon, we are missing the boat of Jesus' salvation and will find ourselves flailing in the waters of the world, trying to save ourselves. This is why we need Jesus. We can't deliver ourselves. We just can't.

In truth, it isn't necessary to understand why we hate either one person or a group of people. The important point is that we be willing to relinquish the Satan induced, call of the flesh, to Jesus so that He can remove it from our hearts. When this is done, freedom through Christ is the result. For some, however, it may be helpful to know why we need to give our resentments, our hates, and our unforgiving stances to the Lord. We do this because He is the only way we'll be able to get rid of them. And if we don't get rid of them, they will destroy us.

Acting out these deep carnal desires of our defiled hearts, by killing the people we have deemed are the cause of all our problems, or shunning them or running from them or trying to solve the problems in any other way, other than through the saving power of Jesus Christ, is fruitless. It won't work. The world's way of solving relational problems, does nothing but perpetuate more problems. If everyone tried to solve their relationship problems in this manner, the world would be a chaotic mess…oh, wait, it is, isn't it?

The mechanism of hate will gradually grind to a halt as more and more people give their hearts and flaws totally to Jesus. As this mechanism slows, people will not be so quick to judge. Time will seem to stand still as we take our holy breaths and let the love of Christ remove all guilt. The mechanism of hate that has caused large segments of the population to pounce on individuals targeted by their anger, will be reduced with each changed heart. With each individual who joins God's family through Jesus, the only true healing there is will occur. "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” becomes no longer a distant dream but a present reality.

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