(1.) among the works of the flesh (Ga 5:20). Altogether different is the meaning of the word in De 21:15; Mt 6:24; Lu 14:26; Ro 9:13, where it denotes only a less degree of love.

Personal hatred is permitted in the OT, but forbidden in the NT (Mt 5:43-45). Love is to characterize the Christian life (Mt 22:37-40). The only hatred it can express is hatred of evil (Heb 1:9; Jude 1:23; Re 2:6; 17:15). In Lu 14:26 and Joh 12:25 the use of the verb 'hate' by Jesus is usually explained as Oriental hyperbole; and we are gravely assured that He did not mean hate, but only love less than some other thing. It would seem fairer to suppose that He meant what He said and said what He meant; but that the hatred He enjoined applied to the objects mentioned only so far as they became identified with the spirit of evil and so antagonistic to the cause of Christ.

D. A. Hayes.