HATRED.Personal hatred is permitted in the OT, but forbidden in the NT (Mat_5:43-45). Love is to characterize the Christian life (Mat_22:37-40). The only hatred it can express is hatred of evil (Heb_1:9, Jud_1:23, Rev_2:6; Rev_17:15). In Luk_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.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
Hatred, in the sense of a deep-seated ill-feeling towards another person, is condemned as being one of the evil results of sinful human nature. It is the opposite of love and should not be found in the lives of Gods people (Lev_19:17; Mat_5:44; Gal_5:20; Col_3:8; 1Pe_2:1; 1Jn_4:20). People whose lives are under the power of sin hate what is good, hate those who are righteous, and hate God (1Ki_22:8; Psa_69:4; Mic_3:2; Joh_3:20; Joh_15:18; Joh_15:23-25; Joh_17:14).
Gods people, by contrast, are not to hate those who hate them, but do them good (Luk_6:27). But they must hate wickedness, just as God hates it (Psa_97:10; Psa_119:104; Pro_6:16-19; Isa_61:8; Heb_1:9; Jud_1:23; Rev_2:6).
Sometimes the Bible uses the word hate in a special sense that has nothing to do with either the bitterness or the opposition outlined in the examples above. It is used in a situation where a choice has to be made between two things or two people. One is chosen, or loved, the other is rejected, or hated (Gen_29:30-31; Mal_1:2-3; Luk_14:26-27; Joh_12:25; Rom_9:10-13).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.