Last Night: H8ers Gonna H8

The phrase "Haters gonna hate" is a meme used widely in popular culture. It doesn't refer simply to someone who hates something or someone else. "Haters gonna hate" because they're driven to go beyond private dislike into actively looking down on someone, The Urban Dictionary defines haters this way:

A person that simply cannot be happy for another person's success. So rather than be happy they make a point of exposing a flaw in that person. Hating, the result of being a hater, is not exactly jealousy. The hater doesnt really want to be the person he or she hates, rather the hater wants to knock somelse down a notch.

The phrase and the attitude has its roots in the code of the street. The number one principle at the core of urban street life is the issue of respect. Much of the posturing and language and attitude outsiders observe (with disdain) among the hiphop culture grows out of the need to put on a front that demands respect. Whether or not the person's life and character is actually worthy of respect, the message is constantly shouted out, "Respect me! Or else!"

As such, the rule of respect ironically results in an attitude of arrogant pride that "wants to knock somelese down a notch."

Over the past ten years of involvement in prison ministry, I've seen how the street code of respect leads many people into a violent, arrogant, and eventually self-destructive lifestyle.


On that last night, Jesus warned His followers that "haters gonna hate."

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’ (John 15:18-25)

For someone raised with the code of the street, those words actually can sound very familiar. The leaders of a gang would tell the gang members and other people in their neighborhood that they can expected to be disrespected by people from other neighborhoods and other gangs. This is true because the leaders of those gangs hate each other, which naturally means one crew will hate the other crew. Even unaffiliated people in the neighborhoods may be suspicious of one another.

So does this mean Jesus is telling his disciples to have an arrogant "haters gonna hate" attitude? Obviously not. Jesus says these things within the context of talking about love and righteousness and holiness and fulfilling His mission.

Unfortunately, some Christians fall into the trap of reacting to the hatred and disrespect they receive from outsiders by developing a dismissive attitude toward the critics.

Every time I hear yet another preacher using derisive and mocking words to describe certain groups of non-believers, my ear is hearing the arrogance of "haters gonna hate." Every time I see yet another Christian friend's Facebook post dismissively making fun of atheists, Muslims, sinners, or political opponents, I have trouble seeing any difference between the the mocking heaped upon believers and mocking believers are shoveling right back.

Yes, haters are going to hate. But Christians are supposed to turn the other cheek, overcome evil with good, repay evil with blessing and respond with gentleness and respect.

We don't belong to the world. We belong to Jesus.

We don't respond to h8ers according to the code of the world; We respond according to the code of Jesus:

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. ( I Peter 2:21-23)