#167 - Kyle Thompson // A Time to Love, and a Time to Hate

Ecclesiastes 3:8 teaches that for Christians, there is "a time to love and a time to hate," challenging us to align our hearts with what God loves and hates as part of authentic discipleship.

• Scripture calls us to "let love be genuine" and "abhor what is evil" (Romans 12:9)
• Modern culture has distorted biblical understanding of both love and hate
• 1 John 4 reminds us that "God is love" and defines love through Christ's sacrifice
• Jesus commanded us to love God with everything and our neighbors as ourselves
• Christians are explicitly commanded to "hate evil" (Psalm 97:10)
• Biblical hatred isn't personal malice but righteous alignment with God's character
• True discipleship means loving what God loves and hating what God hates

If you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review. Stay sharp.

Chapters

• 0:01 Introduction to Daily Blade
• 0:33 Exploring Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
• 1:09 Love vs Hate in Modern Context
• 2:47 Biblical Commands on Love
• 4:11 Understanding Righteous Hatred
• 5:42 Closing and Call to Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Speaker 2: 0:33

Good to have you back, guys. This week on the Daily Blade we are focusing on Ecclesiastes 3, verses 1 through 8. I'll read it again here A time to break down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together. A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. A time to seek and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to cast away. A time to tear and a time to sew. A time to keep silence and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to sow. A time to keep silence and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.

Speaker 2: 1:09

So, specifically, today we're keying in on the first part of verse 8, a time to love and a time to hate. So, as is true with the entire passage that we're looking at in Ecclesiastes, there is a juxtaposition with each line, so the words are different sides of the same coin, I guess. So you have weep versus laugh. You have mourn versus dance. I mean, yes, baptist dancing is allowed. You have keep versus cast away, but in my opinion the juxtaposition in the first part of verse eight is the most striking Love versus hate.

Speaker 2: 1:41

So in our modern moment, everything seemingly is about love. So we're constantly told by people that don't believe in God and don't read the Bible that we are to love our neighbor. We are simultaneously told that love is love, even if the love being expressed is contrary to God and to nature. And if we don't boldly proclaim that is truth, then we are called a hater. Right and beyond that. The terms love and hate are just kind of thrown around willy-nilly, right. I mean we'll say things like dude, I love this pizza, or man, I hate that band, or something like that. So in a lot of ways we've lost the appropriate categories for love and hate, because culture has co-opted those words from God and because we use them cheaply. Right.

Speaker 2: 2:27

But for us as Christians, we have to make sure that we have right thinking and right actions as it pertains to love and hate, because in order to be a true follower of God, we must love what God loves and hate what God hates. I mean Paul essentially says that in his letter to the church in Rome. So in Romans 12, 9, the ESV titles the beginning of the section marks of a true Christian, and the first line is Romans 12, 9,. Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. So how can love be genuine right?

Speaker 2: 3:03

The Apostle John tells us in 1 John 4, beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not love God, because God is love. In this. The love of God has made manifest among us, and God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved, but that God. He loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And specifically, we are supposed to love. And how are we supposed to love and to what level?

Speaker 2: 3:40

So Jesus tells us, when he's answering the question of the Pharisees' lawyer that we see in Matthew 22, 36 through 40. Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And he said to him this is Jesus, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment, and the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

Speaker 2: 4:07

So, yes, there is certainly a time to love, but what about hate? Again, going back to Romans 12, 9, abhor. What is evil? Now, abhor isn't a common word anymore, but it just means to regard with horror, or to loathe, or to detest or to hate, To which you might wonder are you sure? I mean? That sounds really mean, doesn't it? Aren't we, as Christians, supposed to just love everybody and everything? I mean, if you go back to the Daily Blade week starting on June, the 23rd of this year, I spend an entire week on this subject, but the center point of that week was Psalm 97, specifically verse 10.

Speaker 2: 4:46

Oh, you who love the Lord hate evil. Now, to be clear, this is not personal malice, okay. This isn't untethered anger at something or someone. This is righteous hate that is generated inside of us because we have aligned our love and our hate to a God loves and hates. So if you are aligned with God, you will love your neighbor as yourself and also hate. If your neighbor hurts an innocent child, you will love it when you see a young gal remain chaste when a culture tells her to be a whore, and you will hate it when another gal decides to find acceptance in the arms of a new man every night. You will love it when someone puts their faith in Christ and you will also hate it when someone is blasphemous towards him. There is a time to love and a time to hate. We must be ready for both.

Speaker 1: 5:42

Thank you for listening to today's episode. Be ready for both. Thank you for listening to today's episode. Before you go, if you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review. Stay sharp.