Titus 3:3 For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.

“I hate you!” are the three words of murder. Hate or Hatred is defined as “To dislike greatly; to have a great aversion to. It expresses less than abhor, detest, and abominate, unless pronounced with a peculiar emphasis.”

When I was 4 years old, although I do not remember, I told my Dad that “I hated” him. Being a disobedient fallen sinful child, it was probably because he scolded me or disciplined me. It was 20 years later that while in an argument with my Dad, he emotionally brought this up. He said “do you know Jeff, when you were 4 years old, you said you hated me?”. It was seared into him, and I had no idea that I had said this, but it was equally striking how it affected him for all those years.

Hatred for another is a special kind of murder. No, you actually didn’t kill the person physically, but your intent was to kill them spiritually by saying “I hate you!”. And if you were told by another “I hate you”, you probably remember that ONE instant more so than a thousand “I love you’s”. You remember the time, the place, the smell in the air, the circumstance and those searing words “I hate you”. You remember it because it was a murder.
This is why Jesus commands “love your enemies, do not hate them, bless those who persecute you, do not hate them”. Because hatred is a searing murder, it will never be forgot by your enemy, and thus you can forget about they being open from you ever again to listen to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Hatred will consume and blind even the best people out there. It causes irrational and dangerous decisions which will leave the hater in a place of regret. When my Dad told me what I had said as a 4 year old, I instantly regretted it. Just that instant of hate as a child, was enough to invoke a spiritual murder on my Dad.
In the current U.S. political climate, we see all sorts of hatred. A searing hatred for the President has caused deafness and blindness on the good he produced. I have never witnessed so much hatred for one man in my whole lifetime. Hatred in today’s climate is looked at demonically as a strong virtue! A “virtue” from the pit of hell!

Ask yourself what good comes from hatred. Not a thing! Hate never produces joy, it produces evil. It will cause a seemingly well grounded person to do and say things they will later wish they never said and did. Do NOT let hatred become apart of your character as each day Satan and his minions will try to make hatred as a virtue.