Are We Supposed To Love Our Enemies...Or Hate Them?

In this regular feature Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call, here is this week’s question:Dear Dave and Tom, As I have been reading through the Psalms I find myself troubled by some of the verses that seem to contradict what I read in The New Testament.For example, Psalm:139:19Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men.
See All..., seems to be saying we are to hate them that hate the Lord, which is the opposite of Matthew:5:44But 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;
See All..., which tells us to love our enemies.How do you understand such verses?

Tom:

Dave, let me read Psalm:139:19Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men.
See All...:“Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God:depart from me therefore, ye bloody men.For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain.Do not I hate them O Lord, that hate thee?And am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee?I hate them with perfect hatred:I count them mine enemies.”And then, Matthew:5:43Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
See All... and 44 says:“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.”This is Jesus speaking. “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;”

Dave:

Well, Tom, I think it would fall in the same category as the statement that God is angry with the wicked every day, but John:3:16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
See All... says He loves the world.So, I think what the Psalmist is saying, these people are the enemies of God, they would tear God from His throne—I’m opposed to that, they are my enemies, and I hate what they—I’m not hating them as individuals, but I’m hating what they want to do, what they believe.I think that is certainly legitimate.How often have I said on this program, I get really angry, because when someone, like say Eugene Peterson, who wrote The Message, he trashes the Bible.

Tom:

Calls it a Bible, but he trashes it.

Dave:

Right, he calls it a Bible but he changes what God said and puts his own words in there and changes the meaning!I get angry.I get angry with people who preach a false gospel.I get angry with the Pope for what we just discussed about him.He dares to say we are going to continue dialogue? But the only way the dialogue will ever be consummated is when you submit to me as Pope, and you acknowledge you’re not churches at all and you join the Catholic church—but we’ll talk about it, let’s have a discussion about it.That is so insincere, it is so hypocritical, it is so false!So, I get a little angry!But I still those that God loves because, well, they are eternal beings and they will spend eternity either in the joy and bliss of heaven or in the torment of hell.You know, Tom, I think of wisdom speaking in Proverbs Chapter 1:20, “Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets.”Simple, come to Me, I will give you some wisdom. And then wisdom says:Because you would none of My counsel, you despised my reproof, I will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh; destruction and desolation cometh upon you, then they will seek me, but they will not find me.They wouldn’t choose the fear of the Lord.So, we’ve got two sides to this.On the one hand wisdom is crying, Come, Come I want to rescue you from your folly.On the other hand wisdom says, You don’t heed my advice, I will mock you, I will torment you.I think the conscience of man will torment him forever and ever and ever.So the Psalmist—Well, I hate those who hate You.I’m not going to join hands with them, and this is what the Pope is trying to do, or the ecumenical movement is trying to do.Well, you guys teach a false gospel, you really deny what the Bible says.Christ said, It is finished on the cross, but you say you’ve got to keep offering Him again.That’s okay, ECT said, you know, Evangelicals and Catholics Together, we’ll just join together, we’ll evangelize the world together.How about that!It’s insanity, Tom, but it makes me angry!

Tom:

But it’s a very difficult thing, Dave, first of all to get an understanding of this thing, you know, and I agree with everything you have said.At the same time, you think about a person, it’s so easy for the flesh to move over to actually hating the person.For example, I grew up Roman Catholic, and I’d take a back seat to nobody when it comes to loving Roman Catholics, to loving the Pope, to loving the individuals.I was pretty much raised by them.I went to private school, so I was raised by nuns and priests, and that was back when we didn’t have any of these scandals, you know, sexual scandals and so on.And so I look back on that part of my life and it was really wonderful, Dave.But they have a false gospel, these are people who have committed themselves, dedicated themselves, their lives to something that’s false.So I am going to do everything I can, in love to bring them to truth.Now some people might say, Well, that’s being hateful, that’s being dissident.No, it’s not!If God is love, yet He does the things that you are talking about, He disciplines, He does all these kinds of things for our sake, yet we don’t want it, then all of a sudden we translated this, God being a ogre, God being hateful, and so on.It’s just difficult, Dave.

Dave:

Tom, Paul says:Am I your enemy because I tell you the truth?Discipline, we need some discipline.Parents find that out, but the society we live in today doesn’t discipline—everything is okay, that’s all right, we’ll let you go.And parents are willing to do that, there is very little discipline in many families, and what does that bring about?Well, the children have run amuck, they are little monsters who think the world exists for them, and God has to discipline, and He will, but He does it because He loves us.