Healthy Hatred

An occasion in which Jesus was shown to have an outburst of emotion embodied by anger and hatred was one in which something holy was treated as unholy – where something pure was tarnished. Jesus enters the temple grounds and sees common services for facilitating worship being done in such a way that people were being cheated out of money; and by way of thievery, some were profiting from the worship of others (Mt. 21, Mk. 11, Lk. 19, Jn. 2). Jesus sees a place of high regard being treated with very little respect. He sees men who claim to be righteous, full of sin and irreverence. So he becomes angry, braids a whip and begins cleaning house. But what is His focus? Where is His anger?

Jesus had no problem with people buying and selling livestock at the temple area or changing money honestly. These were part of the natural process of temple worship. Jesus had a problem when sin entered the picture. He had a problem when that which was to be revered was treated as a common thing. The holiness of God, the holiness of His worship, and holiness of His temple were being treated as anything but holy.

Think of it in terms of Genesis 3. God had no problem with Adam and Eve communing with Him. God had a problem when sin entered the picture… resulting in Adam and Eve being expelled from the garden. Did God have hatred toward Adam and Eve? Or was His anger focused on their sin? God is pure and holy. Jesus is pure and holy. Therefore anything impure opposes God and is expelled from God.

When a man sins against God, he hurts God, puts a barrier between him and God, and becomes an enemy of God. Man is the object of God’s love. God desires to commune with man. Therefore, that which keeps man from God, sin, is the object of God’s hatred.

So the question emerges: Do we love what God loves and, therefore, hate what God hates? God loves every person and hates the sin within every person… because it is separating them from Him. Do we hate sin, worldliness, impurity, and irreverence toward God and His worship? Do we love our fellowman enough to confront these things in him?

-Cary Gillis D.Min.

December 11, 2020