Hate, like love, is a big subject with various shades of meaning. Some hatred is good because God wants us to hate evil (Proverbs 6:16-19; 8:13). But most hatred is a terrible part of human nature—hostility, resentment, revenge, cruelty, the spirit of murder, a major cause of wars, etc. We see hatred in our society becoming more widespread, intense and violent. We hear a lot about irrational hatred, but the most irrational hatred was of the perfect Man, Jesus Christ! Hatred is certainly not new—Cain killed his brother Abel. The Old Testament teaches love but Jesus Christ raised the standard, teaching that we should even love our enemies (Matthew 5:38-48). Matthew 24:9-12 is one of the saddest passages in the Bible because it seems to apply primarily to the people God has called. It says “many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another” and “the love of many will grow cold.” May this never be true of any of us!