- a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. -

God is love. Then why tell us to hate?
To love others is difficult, but easy to understand the merits of.
A child knows it’s important for the stronger to look out for the weaker. This can only be achieved in a culture that values love.
Then there is hate.
Hate is a bad word. Even thinking the idea about your peers is deemed reprehensible, and you’ll judge yourself for the emotion, even when it doesn’t manifest to others.
What then is our hate good for? Why would we be told there our moments in our life when we should hate?
A good analogy is disgust. This emotion keeps you away from things that are dirty, rotten, or infectious.
Do you hate the things that fall into those categories? Somewhat. Hate is a strong word after all.
What are the things you do prize in your life? Perhaps it’s a family. It may be difficult at times, but you love your family, unless they’ve acted in a truly malicious way against you.
Your job probably keeps you from them. Should you hate your job? No. What is required is an appropriate love for your job in comparison to your family.
Should you hate extra marital affairs? Yes. They directly conflict with your family and that of others.
What have we modeled? Love for the good and hatred for evil.
Is that hate well aimed? Yes, because it is an attempt to disrupt the beauty and meaning found your life.
The time for peace is something Christians are to be about. Our Lord is called the Prince of Peace. Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.
When has God not acted in a peaceful manner?
Think about the Temple and Jesus overthrowing the merchants’ stalls. Think about Jericho and all the people living in the walls.
There is a part of us, judgmental and rigid – forged in tradition, that tells us violence is mandatory to keep the peace.
Although it speaks a truth, it speaks it with a lustfulness for violence and upholding order above all else.
I always think God’s wars in the Old Testament appear to us the same way, as if we interpret them through this same emotional lens. Either that, or as cruelty, unchecked.
I believe strongly that God gave humanity the grace to grow. I think that means at times our morality is a pale imitation of His.
Why did God allow the Jews to play out religious wars when He knew one day His command would be to turn the other cheek?
The text, or perhaps our language, wrestles with itself.
Does violence bring about peace? The statement is akin to asking, do wars end?
The difficulty is that some wars are fought over selfish goals; a nation’s gain held above another’s.
Wars that set tyrants on thrones end, but not in peace. When they end, the populace is held under cruelty and torture until a liberator comes.
The liberator is not a keeper of peace but indeed a maker. A liberator does not demand resources or a people subservient to them, only that tyrant hold their souls down no longer.
Why did God allow the Jews their religious wars? It was to show their limitation.
Why did God give us the law? To show its limitation.
We are now called to a new path.