"The Truth is Hate to those who Hate the Truth"

When I first read this quote, I thought it meant – ‘The truth is to hate
those who hate the truth’, or a declaration of ‘Hate’ to all those who hate
the truth. But that is not what it is saying. What it is really saying is that
the Truth is hated by all those who hate the Truth!
Now who are these that hate the Truth? Just about everyone who comes
into the world as a descendant of Adam! The psalmist confessed,
“Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive
me”. [Psalm 51:5]. Again, “The wicked are estranged from the womb:
they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies”. [Psa 58:3]. And
the Master said, “And this is the condemnation, that Light is come into
the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their
deeds were evil”. [John 3:19].

Men may and do accept some aspects of truth while embracing other
lies. Many condemn Abortion while condoning Idol worship. Some who
decry Homosexuality would think nothing of advocating extramarital
sex between consenting parties! But there is only one born of woman
who was a lover of ALL TRUTH! Of him alone it could be said, “Thou
lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God,
hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows”! [Psa
45:7]. Of all the so called holy men and prophets that walked the earth
only He was truth personified. Unlike the others He not only taught us
the truth but affirmed –“I am the Truth”! Only of Him did God the
Father say, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear
ye Him”! [Matt 17:5] He is the Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the
flesh! [see 1Tim 3:16]

When He came into the world He was hated, persecuted and finally
killed. They hated Him without a cause! They hated Him because He
was the Truth, and men hate the Truth!
But there are others who loved Him and received Him as Lord. What
made them do this? The work of God in their hearts! God took away
their stony heart and gave them a heart of flesh. He sovereignly
regenerated them and drew them to His Son! They did not love or
‘choose’ Him by their own free will but were made willing in the day of
His power! [Psa 110:3] “No man can come to me, except the Father
which hath sent me draw him”! And again, “No man can come unto me,
except it were given unto him of my Father”. [John 6:44, 65]

These regenerated ones love God and His Truth because He first loved
them. “We love Him, because He first loved us”! [1John 4:19]. Neither
do they love some truth or most of the truth, but ALL TRUTH! And
because they love all truth, they hate every false way! “O how I love
Thy law! It is my meditation all the day….Through Thy precepts I get
understanding: therefore I hate every false way”! [Psa 119:97-104]

They especially hate beliefs and practices done in the name of their Lord
who bled and died to save them! Christ-MASS being one of them!

Surely ChristMASS is not some ‘unforgivable Sin’ that will send people
to hell. But to know the truth and willingly reject it surely betrays one’s
identity. Not only does God open the eyes of his regenerated ones to the
truth but gives them the will to take a stand for it. And the one cannot
save without the other. “Just as weight cannot be separated from a stone,
or heat from a fire, so cannot justification from sanctification”!
[A.W.Pink]

As the Master said – “If ye know these things, happy are ye IF YE DO

THEM”. [Jn 13:17] There is such a thing as ‘an external work of the
Holy Spirit’ whereby men grasp the doctrines of God in their heads, but
ONLY THE ELECT are enabled by the working of God both TO WILL
AND TO DO HIS GOOD PLEASURE! [Phil 2:13]

"The Truth is Hate to those who Hate the Truth"

But what if the quote actually read “The Truth is to Hate those who Hate
the Truth” as I initially thought it did. How true and Scriptural would
that be?
In fact many would be amazed to know that it would be very Scriptural!
The loving Psalmist, the man after God’s own heart said –

“Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved
with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I
count them mine enemies”! [Psalm 139:21,22]

Commenting on this verse Spurgeon says –

“He was a good hater, for he hated only those who hated good. Of this
hatred he is not ashamed, but he sets it forth as a virtue to which he
would have the Lord bear testimony. To love all men with benevolence
is our duty; but to love any wicked man with complacency would be a
crime. To hate a man for his own sake, or for any evil done to us, would
be wrong; but to hate a man because he is the foe of all goodness and the
enemy of all righteousness, is nothing more nor less than an obligation.
The more we love God the more indignant shall we grow with those who
refuse him their affection. "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let
him be Anathema Maranatha." Truly, "jealousy is cruel as the grave."
The loyal subject must not be friendly to the traitor. And am not I
grieved with those that rise up against thee? He appeals to heaven that he
took no pleasure in those who rebelled against the Lord; but, on the
contrary, he was made to mourn by a sight of their ill behaviour. Since
God is everywhere, he knows our feelings towards the profane and
ungodly, and he knows that so far from approving such characters the
very sight of them is grievous to our eyes”. [C.H. Spurgeon Treasury of
David]

In another place David says – “I have hated the congregation of evil

doers; and will not sit with the wicked’! [Psalm 26:5]
And again – “I have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I trust in
the LORD”! [Psalm 31:6]
In the New Testament our own Lord, the Prince of Peace affirmed –
“If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife,
and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he
cannot be My disciple”! [Luke 14:26]

That is a pretty strong requirement! “If any man come to Me, and hate
not ……he cannot be My disciple”! The word “hate” (in Greek ‘miseo’)
has the meaning ‘hate or detest’. It is the same word used in Rom 9:13
where God says He hated Esau. Nevertheless the verse continues with
“his father, and mother “ but the 5th Commandment orders: “Honour
your father and your mother …...” (Exe 20:12) Now the Bible does not
contradict Itself so the meaning of “hate” here is meant to emphasize
that the LOVE (Agape) we must have for God and His Christ has to be
so great that when we compare it with the love we have for our close
relatives the latter would appear as “hate”.

The word ‘hate’ here falls into a category of "extreme language," the
language of absoluteness used to express a preference, and may refer to
disattachment, indifference, or nonattachment without any feelings of
revulsion involved. To seal this matter completely, let's look at some
parallel material which prove our point. The closest example comes
from Genesis 29:30-1:

And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than
Leah, and served with him yet seven other years. And when the LORD
saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren.
[Gen 29:30,31]

Here, "hated" is clearly used synonymously with one who is loved less.
Let it be added that if Jacob hated Leah in a literal way, it is hardly
believable that he would consent to take her as his wife at all. (See also
Judges 14:16 and Deut. 21:15-17.)

Again a literal hate of the body would have us cutting it with razors or
hitting it with blunt objects -- an extreme practiced in some Roman
Catholic Monasteries by devotees whipping themselves (Flagellation) as
penance for their sins!

Therefore, Christ is saying that anyone following Him, making a

commitment to the Christian way of life, must love Him more than
family and friends, and even life itself. Our allegiance and commitment
is first to Christ and His family before anything else.

But to return, when the Psalmist speaks of hating those who hate God
and the Truth, it is not a hatred with a mind to cause harm but a
preference to love and fellowship with those who are also lovers of God
and the Truth.

In fact if you truly loved God and took a stand for His Truth, you cannot
but be hated by those who hate the Truth! This same David said, “I am
for peace: but when I speak, they are for war”. [Psa 120:7] Why so?
Because the true saint does not seek for peace at the cost of truth! As
John Owen rightly said - “For what peace in the Church without truth?
All conformity to anything else is but the agreement of Herod and Pilate
to destroy Christ and His Kingdom" And because our unsaved relatives
and friends hate the truth their hatred towards us is inevitable.

The Master told His own brothers born to Mary, “The world cannot hate
you; but Me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof
are evil”! [John 7:7]

The Master told His disciples, “If the world hate you, ye know that it
hated Me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would
love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen
you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you”! [John
15:18,19]

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