Article January 16, 1989 Issue

The divine response

Is it really possible to meet hatred with love? What happens when we do?

Jeannie J. Ferber

Consider for a moment the possibility that you or I or any individual or nation is not the original source, or the cause, of hatred. Only hatred hates. And hating or feeling hated is imposed on us by something very foreign to our genuine nature. As the Bible says of fear, "God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."^{II Tim. 1:7.} So perhaps it is also true that there really is nothing truly native to us that hates or wants to hate.

Then, why do we see so much injustice, intolerance, bigotry, prejudice, and inhumanity in the world? Moreover, why does it so often seem so very hard to love? One answer might be that we have wrongly identified prejudice, intolerance, or hatred as being in us and in others and have misunderstood what it is we are to love in ourselves and in others.

In the following incident, who hated and what was loved? The scene is the garden of Gethsemane. Judas has come to betray Christ Jesus. Yet, Matthew tells us, when Jesus sees Judas, he addresses him as "Friend."^{Matt. 26:50.} Moments after the soldiers seize Jesus, one of Jesus' disciples cuts off the ear of the high priest's servant. Luke describes Jesus' instant response: "He touched his ear, and healed him."^{See Luke 22:50, 51.}