"He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now."(1 John 2:9)
In one "Peanuts" cartoon, Lucy says to Charlie Brown, "I hate everything!, I hate everybody, I hate the whole world!" Charlie Brown says, "But I thought you had inner peace?" Lucy replies, "I do have inner peace, but I still have outer obnoxiousness!"
There is so much hatred in our world today. We see a great deal of it in our country. In government, in communities, in families, in marriages, hatred is showing it's ugly head.
John writes in his first letter, that those who hate, live in a state of spiritual "darkness." And that is a state of being separated from God. Hatred is a terrible sinful attitude, that darkens our understanding.
If we have a proper relationship with God, we will be positioned in the light. We will have a proper understanding of how we are to feel, and act toward others. We will value others as more important than ourselves.
If we will have the mind of Christ, we will be like our Lord, and treat people as He did in the Gospels.
One who is in the light, will not have the darkened attitudes of selfishness, dominance, jealousy, prejudice, etc. We will treat each other with love and respect, instead of using people to gain our own agendas. We will agree to disagree, instead of threatening to do harm, or even to murder, if someone doesn't see things our way.
Where will this dark path of hatred eventually take us? Paul writes in Galatians 5:19-21, concerning the acts of hatred. Having these attitudes, and pursuing these actions will not allow us our inheritance of the
kingdom of God. I believe that the darkened path of hatred, will eventually take us to hell!. Is that what we want? I wouldn't think so! GP
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