http://www.care2.com/greenliving/do-you-love-to-hate.html
Do You Love to Hate?
In the space where fear once lived, love enters to replace it. The kingdom of God contains only love. Anything that falls short of this ideal hasn’t been fully transformed. In Jesus’s eyes, the everyday world feebly reflects divine love. This holds the key to one of his most disturbing teachings:
If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
Jesus seems to be ordering his disciples to abandon every cherished relationship, yet this makes no sense from a teacher who also commands them to love their enemies.
Jesus speaks in absolutes to catch his listener’s attention, and here he is making the sharpest possible distinction between ordinary love and divine love. “Me” stands for God, and “coming to Me” means entering the Kingdom of God, which is to say, God’s reality. That reality isn’t physical; it isn’t found in worldly relationships, even the most loving ones. If you want to know divine love, you must find it on its own terms, not the terms you are used to.
Even when phrased more softly, this is a radical teaching. A person doesn’t start with everyday love and then direct that feeling toward God. A complete reversal of perception is necessary – to dramatize this reversal, Jesus turns the word love into hate.
The mystical Jesus regards the entire world as an illusion, which would make the love we experience here also an illusion. Now the word hate becomes understandable: Jesus is warning us off the kind of unreal love that lulls us, blinding us to God’s love.
Adapted from The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2008).
More from Deepak Chopra (522 articles available)
Go to the Source
related stories
-
(9 comments)
-
(16 comments)
-
Robyn
Melissa
Deepak
Eric
Dave
Dr. Brent
Isha
Susan
Delia
Michelle
Wendy
Megan
Hilary
Ann
Judi
Ronnie
Kelly
Lily
Terri
Betsy
Cait
Andrew
Jana
Annie B.
Veronica
21 comments
add your comment »Life of this world is temporary. Its like we are on holiday and very soon we all will hav to go back to our real destination when the time is right. The real life begins the day our bodies die and our souls are released to enter the next phase of our journey. We all are actually actors in a movie made by our CREATOR. ( lol - we al are getting a chance at acting) When our roles are over HE just calls us back HOME where we really belong. So our LORD wants us to abandon the luv of this world by expelling all creatures(brothers, sisters, spouses,parents, children and material possessions) from our hearts and stripping it bear of everything apart from HIS LUV. HE wants our HEARTS to be filled with HIS Luv only and we must luv all others for HIS Sake only, not for ourselves.
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
oops! That's frailities, sorry about the inattention to spelling.
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
I think the author is comparing the different loves of life..the love of self, the love of others and the love of God which is the highest form of love there is. In order to really love we have to at least acknowledge that there is hatred for something or someone in the hearts of all humans and that is the only way to truly love God. By admitting we are but human, with human fraililies and weaknesses but also capable of divine love which is the love of God.
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
I hear yah, Emerald. I think the author is just trying to make a buck off uninformed people seeking God.
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
Of all the years, this is the first time I have ever heard of "Unreal love"...
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
Perfect love castes out all fear...
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
Love and Hate are emotions we allow ourselves to feel and the Bible and it's teachings should be taken spiritually, not literally.
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
No, Judith, you're not!
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
Anyone who was so concerned about saving souls would GIVE AWAY such a book.
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
I disagree with the author that the love we have for those close to us is an "unreal" love. I think Jesus meant we must give up all we cherish and love on this earth in order to enter the Kingdom. Adam ate the apple because he loved Eve and didn't want her to be banished alone. Abraham was willing to kill his son knowing that God would make things right in the end. God wants ALL of our trust so that one day He will be able to trust us fully.
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
Facebook account: