LOVE AND HATE

With our annual Christmas program this morning, I didn't have to preach today, so I decided this afternoon to get a jumpstart on next week's sermon. Next Sunday will be the 4th Sunday of Advent and the traditional focus is on Love.

Out of curiosity, I got onto the STEP Bible website and did some searches: "love" and "hate" in both the Old and New Testaments. 

Any guess as to how many times words denoting "hate" show up in the Old Testament?

159. 

And most of those are humans hating each other or hating God.

In the New Testament?

38. 

Most often the world hating the disciples. 

And what of words denoting "love"?

In the Old Testament, some form of "love" shows up 1,183 times. (That's over 7X the "hate".)

In the New Testament, 585. (Over 15X the "hate".) 

I plan to look more closely at the nature of the way the two words are used and what sort of things are loved or hated and by whom, but at first look, this seems to confirm my impression that the Bible is far more interested in the positive side of existence rather than the negative.