a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
The scope of these verses is to show, 1. That we live in a world of changes, that the several events of time, and conditions of human life, are vastly different from one another, and yet occur promiscuously, and we are continually passing and repassing between them, as in the revolutions of every day and every year.
Commenting on Ecclesiastes 3:1-10
A time to love, and a time to hate,.... For one to love his friend, and to hate a man, a sinner, as the Targum; to love a friend while he continues such, and hate him, or less love him, when he proves treacherous and unfaithful; an instance of a change of love into hatred may be seen in the case of Amnon, Sa2 13:15.
hate--for example, sin, lusts (Luk 14:26); that is, to love God so much more as to seem in comparison to hate "father or mother," when coming between us and God. a time of war . . . peace-- (Luk 14:31).