SUBJECT:  Luke 14:26  The word “hate”

QUESTION:  Some feel that the word hate in this verse means exactly what it means, that we are to hate our parents, spouses and friends in order to love Christ.  Is this Biblically founded?  Does the word “hate” mean hate or “love less”?

ANSWER:

Verse in question:

Luke 14:26

If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

Clearly anyone can believe what they want.  If they chose to hate, detest, have malice for or passions to murder everyone within 10 miles of their location to prove that they love Jesus, then they have the freedom to do so.  The idea that hate means hate as we English speaking people view hate then I have a problem.  Let us notice the definition of "hate" from the Webster's Unabridged 1913:

HATE

DEFINITION ONE

1. To have a great aversion to, with a strong desire that evil should befall the person toward whom the feeling is directed; to dislike intensely; to detest; as, to hate one's enemies; to hate hypocrisy.

     Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. 1 John 3. 15.

My Note:  There is no Biblical support for having firstfruits (with the Holy Spirit) hating people according to definition 1.  Even

Webster's gives 1 John 3:15 showing that if we hate our brother, we are a murderer and as you know, murderers will NOT be in the Kingdom of God.

Revelation 21:8

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

So if one has a strong desire that evil should befall the persons in their lives (husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, friends) then by scripture, they will be thrown into the lake of fire.

Ditto for any feeling of hate that is greater than "love less" including the rejection of husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters and friends.

In both Luke 14:26 and 1 John 3:15 the words hate and hateth are Strong's words 3404:

NT:3404

miseo (mis-eh'-o); from a primary misos (hatred); to detest (especially to persecute); by extension, to love less:

KJV - hate (-ful).

~Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary.

So if one wants "hate" to be hate in Luke 14:26 then he or she is looking for the lake of fire.  IT MEANS 'LOVE LESS'.  Even "miseo" is stated as meaning "to love less".

This is NOT grasping at straws.  God did not author a Bible where truth could not be known by a person with the Holy Spirit (Read 1 John 2:20).

DEFINITION TWO

2. To be very unwilling; followed by an infinitive, or a substantive clause with that; as, to hate to get into debt; to hate that

anything should be wasted.

     I hate that he should linger here. Tennyson.

My Note:  This definition does not apply to our conversation

DEFINITION THREE

3. (Script.) To love less, relatively. Luke xiv. 26. Syn. -- To Hate, Abhor, Detest, Abominate, Loathe. Hate is the generic word, and implies that one is inflamed with extreme dislike. We abhor what is deeply repugnant to our sensibilities or feelings. We detest what contradicts so utterly our principles and moral sentiments that we feel bound to lift up our voice against it. What we abominate does equal violence to our moral and religious sentiments. What we loathe is offensive to our own nature, and excites unmingled disgust. Our Savior is said to have hated the deeds of the Nicolaitanes; his language shows that he loathed the lukewarmness of the Laodiceans; he detested the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees; he abhorred the suggestions of the tempter in the wilderness.

My Note:  Webster's uses Luke 14:26 and declares it to mean 'Love Less"!!!  Note that even in this third definition, as it discusses

Christ, we see Him hating deeds, lukewarmness, hypocrisy and temper but nothing about Jesus hating or detesting specific individuals themselves.

If one declares that I must hate and reject  husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters and friends to love

Jesus then one must show me Jesus rejecting Mary, Joseph, His brothers and His friends and disciples.

If one declares that "hate" means to hate and reject will have a problem with these scriptures:

Matthew 5:43-44

43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which  despitefully use you, and persecute you;

Matthew 19:19

Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Matthew 22:39-40

39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

John 15:12-13

12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

John 15:17-18

17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.

18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

Romans 12:9-10

9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.

10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;

Romans 13:8

Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

Romans 13:9-10

Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Galatians 5:13-14

13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Ephesians 1:15

Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,

Ephesians 4:2

With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;

Ephesians 5:25-26

25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

Ephesians 5:28-29

28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.

29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:

Ephesians 5:33

Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband

Philippians 2:1-2

1 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,

2 Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

Colossians 1:4

Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,

Colossians 3:19

Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.

1 Thessalonians 3:12-13

12 And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:

13 To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

1 Thessalonians 4:9

But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

Titus 2:4

That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,

Hebrews 10:24

And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:

Hebrews 13:1

Let brotherly love continue.

James 2:8

If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:

1 Peter 1:22

Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:

1 Peter 2:17

Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

1 Peter 3:8-10

8 Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:

9 Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.

10 For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:

1 John 3:11

For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

1 John 3:16

Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

1 John 3:23

And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us

commandment.

1 John 4:7

Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

1 John 4:20-21

20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

2 John 1

The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth;

3 John 1

The elder unto the well beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth.

NOTE:  For those who believe that we are to hate our husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, friends and enemies have a real problem with all these scriptures.