"Love is all you need."
It was a phrase made popular by a pseudo-philosopher who was so hopped up on LSD and ego that he never truly got past the idea that good vibes were a virtue. Then again, a lot of people were on a psychedelic trip back then, which would explain why so many people thought John Lennon's music was actually good.
Truth be told, I hate his music. I find it bland, preachy, and self-important. Even his Christmas song, which I hear too often played in stores during the Christmas season, makes me want to shoot out the speakers. Lennon was a preacher who, like many celebrities, stood on a soapbox he only thought he deserved because his adoring fans consistently reinforced his sense of importance. It's a very common trap for celebrities, and it leads them to truly believe that their opinions are far more important than others.
But, like Lennon's choice in wives, the man was wrong about love being all you need. Love is, like any other emotion, not a virtue in and of itself. It's how you love. C.S. Lewis noted as much in his book "The Great Divorce" when he wrote, "No natural feelings are high or low, holy or unholy, in themselves. They are all holy when God's hand is on the reins. They all go bad when they set up on their own and make themselves into false gods."
Funnily enough, this includes hatred.
The Bible is often waved in front of the faces of Western peoples as a reminder that hate and intolerance are immoral and love and understanding are virtues. Jesus is specifically taken out of context so often to reinforce this idea, and it's done so often that you can almost set your watch to it the moment an issue arises that requires "compassion."
But the Bible is actually pretty clear about hatred's uses. Proverbs 6:16-9, for instance, notes that there are "six things that the Lord hates, and seven that are detestable to Him."
The book of Psalms calls for people to "hate" evil on multiple occasions, including 97:10 and 119:104.
From these three verses alone, we not only learn that hatred isn't just a useful way of keeping both our own souls and the world a better place through hatred of evil, but that God Himself has cause to hate multiple things. Hate is not, in itself, a bad thing. It is, as Lewis said, "holy when God's hand is on the reins."
To give you a solid example with recent events, the capture of the cartel leader and illegitimate dictator of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, did many things that we should hate as moral people. He starved people, committed violence against those who publicly stood against him, and refused to give up power when the people didn't elect him.
Maduro is a horrible man. A villain in every sense of the word. While I'm not called to hate him, in particular, I am called to hate what he did and what he stands for. Hatred of his wrongdoing is a healthy thing, and it led, in many ways, to him being forcibly removed from power and made to stand trial here in the United States, where a lot of his cartel activity harmed and killed a lot of American citizens.
If love were all we needed to make the world a better place, then compassion and brotherly vibes would've had Hugo Chavez out of his position of power over Venezuela, never giving Maduro the chance to take control. But clearly, our love of good didn't do much to budge either of those men. It took our hate of evil to get them removed.
Hatred of communism. Hatred of criminal and immoral behavior, especially when it's sold as virtue.
Hatred of evil keeps us good. It keeps love honest. You can think of righteous hatred as a sort of immune response. It kicks in when we see something that we know to be wrong deep in our hearts, and it causes us to stand up and take action. This is when hate becomes an absolute virtue. Hate is necessary to keep a society in good shape, at least when that hate is legitimate and righteous.
Today's society has made hate unfashionable, but the truth is that hate is necessary. Intolerance is a must. It drives the proverbial wolves into the hills and keeps society in a state of stability. It keeps the lawless restrained and those without morals constantly looking over their shoulder. Hatred deters evil when used properly.
