"There is a time to love and a time to hate." -Ecc. 3:8a
If this is indeed scripture, what Paul calls "ιερά γράμματα... τα δυνάμενά σε σοϕίσαι εις σωτηριαν δια πιστεως της εν Χριστω Ιησου" (2 Timothy 3:15), that which also completes the man of God in all righteousness (v.16); if this is scripture- and believe me reader, it is- then Christians are confronted with the sheer, Christological wisdom of hatred. It is wise, when the time calls, to hate. This is what our Lord wants of us.
Naturally Anabaptists will balk at the Old Testament, which usually only gets a hearing when it is in full accord with their dream-like, imaginary world of Jesuanic ethics. To them I quote the saying of Jesus found in Luke:
"If anyone comes to me and does not μισει (hate, despise) his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters....he cannot be my disciple." (Lk. 14:26)
Naturally the Mennonite is not faithful to this saying of Jesus; she only ever hates that which is praiseworthy and loves that which is full of blame. Yet she serves as a paragon for the universal situation of Law and that which it places us under: disobedience. If a person loves another, we should not be quick to praise them as pious exemplars of the meaning of Christianity. It so happens that the love we show our fellowmen is very often worthless in the eyes of God.
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