hatred

• hostility is automatic reaction of children of nature

70:1.1War is the nat­u­ral state and her­itage of evolv­ing man; peace is the so­cial yard­stick mea­sur­ing civ­i­liza­tion’s ad­vance­ment. Be­fore the par­tial so­cial­iza­tion of the ad­vanc­ing races man was ex­ceed­ingly in­di­vid­u­al­is­tic, ex­tremely sus­pi­cious, and un­be­liev­ably quar­rel­some. Vi­o­lence is the law of na­ture, hos­til­ity the au­to­matic re­ac­tion of the chil­dren of na­ture, while war is but these same ac­tiv­i­ties car­ried on col­lec­tively. And wher­ever and when­ever the fab­ric of civ­i­liza­tion be­comes stressed by the com­pli­ca­tions of so­ci­ety’s ad­vance­ment, there is al­ways an im­me­di­ate and ru­inous re­ver­sion to these early meth­ods of vi­o­lent ad­just­ment of the ir­ri­ta­tions of hu­man in­teras­so­ci­a­tions.

• when attacked by h., rest in unassailable citadel of spirit

100:2.7Je­sus por­trayed the pro­found surety of the God-know­ing mor­tal when he said: “To a God-know­ing king­dom be­liever, what does it mat­ter if all things earthly crash?” Tem­po­ral se­cu­ri­ties are vul­ner­a­ble, but spir­i­tual sureties are im­preg­nable. When the flood tides of hu­man ad­ver­sity, self­ish­ness, cru­elty, hate, mal­ice, and jeal­ousy beat about the mor­tal soul, you may rest in the as­sur­ance that there is one in­ner bas­tion, the citadel of the spirit, which is ab­so­lutely unas­sail­able; at least this is true of ev­ery hu­man be­ing who has ded­i­cated the keep­ing of his soul to the in­dwelling spirit of the eter­nal God.

• creative imagination inhibited by

111:4.9Since this in­ner life of man is truly cre­ative, there rests upon each per­son the re­spon­si­bil­ity of choos­ing as to whether this cre­ativ­ity shall be spon­ta­neous and wholly hap­haz­ard or con­trolled, di­rected, and con­struc­tive. How can a cre­ative imag­i­na­tion pro­duce wor­thy chil­dren when the stage whereon it func­tions is al­ready pre­oc­cu­pied by prej­u­dice, hate, fears, re­sent­ments, re­venge, and big­otries?

• absence of ideals of national leaders explains

111:4.10Ideas may take ori­gin in the stim­uli of the outer world, but ide­als are born only in the cre­ative realms of the in­ner world. To­day the na­tions of the world are di­rected by men who have a super­abun­dance of ideas, but they are pov­erty-stricken in ide­als. That is the ex­pla­na­tion of pov­erty, di­vorce, war, and racial ha­treds.

• believers’ reaction to hatred › vanquish by benevolence, love

131:4.6“The spirit of the Uni­verse Keeper en­ters the soul of the sim­ple crea­ture. That man is wise who wor­ships the One God. Those who strive for per­fec­tion must in­deed know the Lord Su­preme. He never fears who knows the bliss­ful se­cu­rity of the Su­preme, for the Su­preme says to those who serve him, ‘Fear not, for I am with you.’ The God of prov­i­dence is our Fa­ther. God is truth. And it is the de­sire of God that his crea­tures should un­der­stand him—come fully to know the truth. Truth is eter­nal; it sus­tains the uni­verse. Our su­preme de­sire shall be union with the Su­preme. The Great Con­trol­ler is the gen­er­a­tor of all things—all evolves from him. And this is the sum of duty: Let no man do to an­other what would be re­pug­nant to him­self; cher­ish no mal­ice, smite not him who smites you, con­quer anger with mercy, and van­quish hate by benev­o­lence. And all this we should do be­cause God is a kind friend and a gra­cious fa­ther who re­mits all our earthly of­fenses.

• Judas indulged

139:12.6Ju­das was an only son of un­wise par­ents. When very young, he was pam­pered and pet­ted; he was a spoiled child. As he grew up, he had ex­ag­ger­ated ideas about his self-im­por­tance. He was a poor loser. He had loose and dis­torted ideas about fair­ness; he was given to the in­dul­gence of hate and sus­pi­cion. He was an ex­pert at mis­in­ter­pre­ta­tion of the words and acts of his friends. All through his life Ju­das had cul­ti­vated the habit of get­ting even with those whom he fan­cied had mis­treated him. His sense of val­ues and loy­al­ties was de­fec­tive.

• nursed in heart courts judgment

140:6.4Then said Si­mon Pe­ter: “Mas­ter, if you have a new com­mand­ment, we would hear it. Re­veal the new way to us.” Je­sus an­swered Pe­ter: “You have heard it said by those who teach the law: ‘You shall not kill; that whoso­ever kills shall be sub­ject to judg­ment.’ But I look be­yond the act to un­cover the mo­tive. I de­clare to you that ev­ery one who is an­gry with his brother is in dan­ger of con­dem­na­tion. He who nurses ha­tred in his heart and plans vengeance in his mind stands in dan­ger of judg­ment. You must judge your fel­lows by their deeds; the Fa­ther in heaven judges by the in­tent.

• self-deception leads to

143:2.5“Many times, when you have done evil, you have thought to charge up your acts to the in­flu­ence of the evil one when in re­al­ity you have but been led astray by your own nat­u­ral ten­den­cies. Did not the Prophet Jeremiah long ago tell you that the hu­man heart is de­ceit­ful above all things and some­times even des­per­ately wicked? How easy for you to be­come self-de­ceived and thereby fall into fool­ish fears, divers lusts, en­slav­ing plea­sures, mal­ice, envy, and even venge­ful ha­tred!

• shadow of fear

145:3.4That Sab­bath was a great day in the earth life of Je­sus, yes, in the life of a uni­verse. To all lo­cal uni­verse in­tents and pur­poses the lit­tle Jew­ish city of Ca­per­naum was the real cap­i­tal of Neb­a­don. The hand­ful of Jews in the Ca­per­naum syn­a­gogue were not the only be­ings to hear that mo­men­tous clos­ing state­ment of Je­sus’ ser­mon: “Hate is the shadow of fear; re­venge the mask of cow­ardice.” Nei­ther could his hear­ers for­get his blessed words, declar­ing, “Man is the son of God, not a child of the devil.”

• believers’ reaction to hatred › give authorities no occasion for offense

157:1.2Now Pe­ter had spo­ken hastily. Ju­das car­ried their funds, and he was across the lake. Nei­ther he, his brother, nor Je­sus had brought along any money. And know­ing that the Phar­isees were look­ing for them, they could not well go to Beth­saida to ob­tain money. When Pe­ter told Je­sus about the col­lec­tor and that he had prom­ised him the money, Je­sus said: “If you have prom­ised, then should you pay. But where­with will you re­deem your prom­ise? Will you again be­come a fish­er­man that you may honor your word? Nev­er­the­less, Pe­ter, it is well in the cir­cum­stances that we pay the tax. Let us give these men no oc­ca­sion for of­fense at our at­ti­tude. We will wait here while you go with the boat and cast for the fish, and when you have sold them at yon­der mar­ket, pay the col­lec­tor for all three of us.”

• believers’ reaction to hatred › h. by men for Jesus’ sake

176:1.1In an­swer­ing Na­than­iel’s ques­tion, Je­sus said: “Yes, I will tell you about the times when this peo­ple shall have filled up the cup of their in­iq­uity; when jus­tice shall swiftly de­scend upon this city of our fa­thers. I am about to leave you; I go to the Fa­ther. Af­ter I leave you, take heed that no man de­ceive you, for many will come as de­liv­er­ers and will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and ru­mors of wars, be not trou­bled, for though all these things will hap­pen, the end of Je­ru­sa­lem is not yet at hand. You should not be per­turbed by famines or earth­quakes; nei­ther should you be con­cerned when you are de­liv­ered up to the civil au­thor­i­ties and are per­se­cuted for the sake of the gospel. You will be thrown out of the syn­a­gogue and put in prison for my sake, and some of you will be killed. When you are brought up be­fore gov­er­nors and rulers, it shall be for a tes­ti­mony of your faith and to show your stead­fast­ness in the gospel of the king­dom. And when you stand be­fore judges, be not anx­ious be­fore­hand as to what you should say, for the spirit will teach you in that very hour what you should an­swer your ad­ver­saries. In these days of tra­vail, even your own kins­folk, un­der the lead­er­ship of those who have re­jected the Son of Man, will de­liver you up to prison and death. For a time you may be hated by all men for my sake, but even in these per­se­cu­tions I will not for­sake you; my spirit will not desert you. Be pa­tient! doubt not that this gospel of the king­dom will tri­umph over all en­e­mies and, even­tu­ally, be pro­claimed to all na­tions.”

180:3.1The eleven had scarcely ceased their dis­cus­sions of the dis­course on the vine and the branches when the Mas­ter, in­di­cat­ing that he was de­sirous of speak­ing to them fur­ther and know­ing that his time was short, said: “When I have left you, be not dis­cour­aged by the en­mity of the world. Be not down­cast even when faint­hearted be­liev­ers turn against you and join hands with the en­e­mies of the king­dom. If the world shall hate you, you should re­call that it hated me even be­fore it hated you. If you were of this world, then would the world love its own, but be­cause you are not, the world re­fuses to love you. You are in this world, but your lives are not to be world­like. I have cho­sen you out of the world to rep­re­sent the spirit of an­other world even to this world from which you have been cho­sen. But al­ways re­mem­ber the words I have spo­ken to you: The ser­vant is not greater than his mas­ter. If they dare to per­se­cute me, they will also per­se­cute you. If my words of­fend the un­be­liev­ers, so also will your words of­fend the un­godly. And all of this will they do to you be­cause they be­lieve not in me nor in Him who sent me; so will you suf­fer many things for the sake of my gospel. But when you en­dure these tribu­la­tions, you should re­call that I also suf­fered be­fore you for the sake of this gospel of the heav­enly king­dom.

180:3.2“Many of those who will as­sail you are ig­no­rant of the light of heaven, but this is not true of some who now per­se­cute us. If we had not taught them the truth, they might do many strange things with­out falling un­der con­dem­na­tion, but now, since they have known the light and pre­sumed to re­ject it, they have no ex­cuse for their at­ti­tude. He who hates me hates my Fa­ther. It can­not be oth­er­wise; the light which would save you if ac­cepted can only con­demn you if it is know­ingly re­jected. And what have I done to these men that they should hate me with such a ter­ri­ble ha­tred? Noth­ing, save to of­fer them fel­low­ship on earth and sal­va­tion in heaven. But have you not read in the Scrip­ture the say­ing: ‘And they hated me with­out a cause’?

180:3.3“But I will not leave you alone in the world. Very soon, af­ter I have gone, I will send you a spirit helper. You shall have with you one who will take my place among you, one who will con­tinue to teach you the way of truth, who will even com­fort you.

180:3.4“Let not your hearts be trou­bled. You be­lieve in God; con­tinue to be­lieve also in me. Even though I must leave you, I will not be far from you. I have al­ready told you that in my Fa­ther’s uni­verse there are many tar­ry­ing-places. If this were not true, I would not have re­peat­edly told you about them. I am go­ing to re­turn to these worlds of light, sta­tions in the Fa­ther’s heaven to which you shall some­time as­cend. From these places I came into this world, and the hour is now at hand when I must re­turn to my Fa­ther’s work in the spheres on high.

180:3.5“If I thus go be­fore you into the Fa­ther’s heav­enly king­dom, so will I surely send for you that you may be with me in the places that were pre­pared for the mor­tal sons of God be­fore this world was. Even though I must leave you, I will be pres­ent with you in spirit, and even­tu­ally you shall be with me in per­son when you have as­cended to me in my uni­verse even as I am about to as­cend to my Fa­ther in his greater uni­verse. And what I have told you is true and ev­er­last­ing, even though you may not fully com­pre­hend it. I go to the Fa­ther, and though you can­not now fol­low me, you shall cer­tainly fol­low me in the ages to come.”

180:3.6When Je­sus sat down, Thomas arose and said: “Mas­ter, we do not know where you are go­ing; so of course we do not know the way. But we will fol­low you this very night if you will show us the way.”

180:3.7When Je­sus heard Thomas, he an­swered: “Thomas, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man goes to the Fa­ther ex­cept through me. All who find the Fa­ther, first find me. If you know me, you know the way to the Fa­ther. And you do know me, for you have lived with me and you now see me.”

180:3.8But this teach­ing was too deep for many of the apos­tles, es­pe­cially for Philip, who, af­ter speak­ing a few words with Na­than­iel, arose and said: “Mas­ter, show us the Fa­ther, and ev­ery­thing you have said will be made plain.”

180:3.9And when Philip had spo­ken, Je­sus said: “Philip, have I been so long with you and yet you do not even now know me? Again do I de­clare: He who has seen me has seen the Fa­ther. How can you then say, Show us the Fa­ther? Do you not be­lieve that I am in the Fa­ther and the Fa­ther in me? Have I not taught you that the words which I speak are not my words but the words of the Fa­ther? I speak for the Fa­ther and not of my­self. I am in this world to do the Fa­ther’s will, and that I have done. My Fa­ther abides in me and works through me. Be­lieve me when I say that the Fa­ther is in me, and that I am in the Fa­ther, or else be­lieve me for the sake of the very life I have lived—for the work’s sake.”

180:3.10As the Mas­ter went aside to re­fresh him­self with wa­ter, the eleven en­gaged in a spir­ited dis­cus­sion of these teach­ings, and Pe­ter was be­gin­ning to de­liver him­self of an ex­tended speech when Je­sus re­turned and beck­oned them to be seated.

• nothing can appeal to victims of intense emotional h.

185:6.4There stood Je­sus of Naz­a­reth, clothed in an old pur­ple royal robe with a crown of thorns pierc­ing his kindly brow. His face was blood­stained and his form bowed down with suf­fer­ing and grief. But noth­ing can ap­peal to the un­feel­ing hearts of those who are vic­tims of in­tense emo­tional ha­tred and slaves to re­li­gious prej­u­dice. This sight sent a mighty shud­der through the realms of a vast uni­verse, but it did not touch the hearts of those who had set their minds to ef­fect the de­struc­tion of Je­sus.

• believers’ reaction to hatred › vanquish by benevolence, love

194:3.11Pen­te­cost, with its spir­i­tual en­dow­ment, was de­signed for­ever to loose the re­li­gion of the Mas­ter from all de­pen­dence upon phys­i­cal force; the teach­ers of this new re­li­gion are now equipped with spir­i­tual weapons. They are to go out to con­quer the world with un­fail­ing for­give­ness, match­less good will, and abound­ing love. They are equipped to over­come evil with good, to van­quish hate by love, to de­stroy fear with a coura­geous and liv­ing faith in truth. Je­sus had al­ready taught his fol­low­ers that his re­li­gion was never pas­sive; al­ways were his dis­ci­ples to be ac­tive and pos­i­tive in their min­istry of mercy and in their man­i­fes­ta­tions of love. No longer did these be­liev­ers look upon Yah­weh as “the Lord of Hosts.” They now re­garded the eter­nal De­ity as the “God and Fa­ther of the Lord Je­sus Christ.” They made that prog­ress, at least, even if they did in some mea­sure fail fully to grasp the truth that God is also the spir­i­tual Fa­ther of ev­ery in­di­vid­ual.

• believers’ reaction to hatred › Spirit of Truth endows with power to overcome

194:3.12Pen­te­cost en­dowed mor­tal man with the power to for­give per­sonal in­juries, to keep sweet in the midst of the gravest in­jus­tice, to re­main un­moved in the face of ap­palling dan­ger, and to chal­lenge the evils of hate and anger by the fear­less acts of love and for­bear­ance. Uran­tia has passed through the rav­ages of great and de­struc­tive wars in its his­tory. All par­tic­i­pants in these ter­ri­ble strug­gles met with de­feat. There was but one vic­tor; there was only one who came out of these em­bit­tered strug­gles with an en­hanced rep­u­ta­tion—that was Je­sus of Naz­a­reth and his gospel of over­com­ing evil with good. The se­cret of a bet­ter civ­i­liza­tion is bound up in the Mas­ter’s teach­ings of the broth­er­hood of man, the good will of love and mu­tual trust.