Schaff's Bible Dictionary
HATE, Gen 24:60. To hate is to regard with a passion contrary to love, Jer 44:4. God's hatred is toward all sinful thoughts and ways. It is a feeling of which all holy beings are conscious in view of sin, and is wholly unlike the hatred which is mentioned in the Scripture among the works of the flesh, Gal 5:20. We must hate the evil, but love and bless our enemy, Matt 5:43. To hate sometimes means to love in a less degree.
When our Saviour says that he who would follow him must hate father and mother, he means that even these dearest earthly friends must be loved in a subordinate degree; and in the same sense the follower of Christ is to hate his own life, or be willing to sacrifice it for the love and service of the Redeemer. A careful examination of the passages and the connection in which these words occur will best show their true force and meaning.