“Whoever claims to love God
yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their
brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not
seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their
brother and sister.” 1
John 4:20-21
The Apostle John wrote this letter to a group of Christians who
were experiencing division within their community of believers. Those who were leaving had begun believing a
perversion of the gospel message that was first presented to them. They claimed
spiritual superiority that created uncertainty with those who remained
behind. John is not saying in these
verses that we are to love everyone in existence; although neither does scripture
tell us to hate or avoid those outside our faith. These particular verses are
speaking specifically of loving your Christian brothers and sisters.
Hate is a very strong emotion and an ugly one at that. Hate can be defined as intense dislike
bordering on hostility toward another individual. Sadly, the world is filled with hate. We see evidence of it on the nightly news. There
are those who believe in something so strongly that they are ready and willing
to actually kill another person over it.
Hatred has been around since the dawn of man.
Too many carry anger around within them. It flares up whenever things are said or done
that they don’t like. I would refer to that as spontaneous hatred: a severe overreaction to an event. This is true within the Christian community
as well. If you hold something against a
brother or sister in Christ and refuse to let it go you make yourself a liar,
because you cannot pick and choose who you are going to love. Scripture tells us that the world will know
we are believers by our love for one another (John 13:35). If we have an intense dislike for another of
like faith what does this say to those outside our faith? How can we truly love God, whom we cannot
experience with our senses when we have distain for another within the faith
whom we can see? We cannot. We are incapable of making right choices in
this regard. We will draw near to those
who are nice to us and avoid those who are not.
Perhaps the reverse should be true.
Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing!
