Hating and Loving by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Apr 29, 1908

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 34, No. 18.

Hating and Loving

By Editor

2483.—Hating and Loving. Luke 14:26.

Will you kindly explain Luke 14:26?

The passage reads: "If any man cometh unto Me, and hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he can not be My disciple." Hate is sometimes used in the Scriptures in the sense of loving less. See Matt. 10: 37, "He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me." So we read in another place, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated," not meaning such hatred as is held by human beings, which would lead one to wish ill of a person or do ill toward him. So the world hates. The Lord was certainly willing to save Esau. God desires that men shall love Him supremely, more than father, mother, brother or sister, son or daughter, or the very climax of all selfishness, the love of himself;—all must yield to the love of God. This, however, does not mean that a man should love these relatives less than he did before, for the man who really loves God loves his relatives more than he possibly could love them if he did not love God. But love to God comes first. To Him we owe life, and all the faculties which permit us to love, and all the good things which this life gives. We would have no love for anything were it not that He has placed these affections in our being. Therefore He has the right to demand—and in this only lies the great happiness of all concerned—our supreme love.