Without too much thought, most Christians would probably say it is wrong to hate. Jesus said they will know we are Christians by our love. So of course we shouldn’t hate, right? Well, not exactly. With a little more thought we realize this is not the complete truth. We have permission to hate. We are even commanded to. Ecclesiastes (chapter 3) tells us
To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to love and a time to hate…
And Romans 12:9 tells us to hate what God hates and to love what he loves. Among the things God hates are pride and arrogance, evil behavior, and perverse speech (Proverbs 8:13).
So, what does it mean to “hate?” I looked up the Greek and found that it means to hate or detest something compared to something else. In other words, the Greek word for hate refers to our evaluation of one thing compared to another thing. When we love someone or something less than someone or something else, it means we hate that something else. In this sense, we are even called to hate our own family and our own lives—as in love them less than we love Jesus (Matthew 10:34-39; Revelation 12:11).
It's one thing to hate what God hates. It’s another thing to be hated. Recently, I was reading in Mark and came across the word hate again. Jesus was telling his disciples that they should expect to be hated on account of his name (Mark 13:13). In other words, we can expect the world to hate us—to esteem us less—because we follow Christ.
Honestly, I took a moment to repent for caring about other people’s opinions of me. I saw in a fresh way that when I value their opinions of me more than God’s opinion, it puts me in the position of hating God! That may sound a bit extreme, but it’s not. To value God’s opinion less than anyone else’s is to hate God’s opinion. Yikes!
At this point in my meditation, the Lord brought Matthew 6:24 to mind.
No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
Some translations render the word “money” as “mammon,” a transliteration of an Aramaic word (mamonas) that basically means riches, money, possessions, or property. It’s likely derived from a Hebrew word (aman) that means to trust in. So, there’s a sense in which the word “mammon” refers to “the treasure a person trusts in.” Thus, trusting in other people’s opinions of us is to value and serve the mammon, the currency, of worldly evaluation. We can value God’s opinion and the world’s opinion. The Greek word “despise” in this verse means to scorn, disregard, or devalue. We are called to disregard the currency of worldly evaluation. The value of others’ opinions is far less than the value of God’s opinion. Don’t trust in it. Hate it!
I shared these thoughts with a group of friends, and one of them nodded and accepted my conclusions without resistance. But at the same time, he didn’t have a problem with caring about what anyone else thinks of him. He said, “I have other mammon, but not that.”
It got me thinking about what other kinds of currency we trade in that ends up meaning more to us than what God says in his word. I don’t know about you, and I can’t say for my friend, but one thing I thought of is logic or “critical thinking skills.” Really. I was reading in Mark again and came across a passage that I didn’t really understand. I journaled about the fact that I didn’t understand it and found myself choosing to be okay with my lack of understanding. I wrote,
“I will not make an idol out of rationality or logic or critical thinking. These are good things. They are tools. But they are not a mammon I trust in. I won’t allow them to be a currency I trade in any more. I do not need to be richer in that currency than anyone else. I choose to live like I’m already loved. I’ve got nothing to prove. Thank you, Jesus.”
At this point, I had identified two types of “mammon,” and I realized they reflected two out of three aspects of the soul—our mind, will, and emotions. I had an emotional mammon (other people’s approval) and a mental mammon (logic, rationality, critical thinking). I prayed about what mammon might be related to my will, and my immediate thought was independence and self-sufficiency. To trust in ourselves more than we trust in God is to value the currency of self-sufficiency more than the currency of rest and dependence. If we believe we must provide for ourselves, refuse help or relationships, and prepare for the worst then we are not really trusting in God’s ability to keep us. Self-sufficiency separates us from the love of God. We must learn to hate it. It’s a hard lesson. I like my independence and self-sufficiency. I don’t like feeling dependent or “beholden” to anyone. But truth doesn’t bend to my preferences. If self-sufficiency is mammon in my wallet, I choose to hate it—to value it less than my dependence on God.
So, what kind of mammon is in your wallet?
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