Dear friends, I’m not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the message you heard. On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light already shines. The one who claims to be in the light while hating a brother or sister is in the darkness even now. The person loving a brother and sister stays in the light, and there is nothing in the light that causes a person to stumble. But the person who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and lives in the darkness, and doesn’t know where to go because the darkness blinds the eyes. (1 John 2:7-11, CEB)
If you hate anyone, you are not following Jesus. “The one who claims to be in the light while hating a brother or sister is in the darkness even now.”
So, what is hate? M-W.com says:
as a Noun:
1 a: intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, or sense of injury
b: extreme dislike or disgust : antipathy, loathing
c: a systematic and especially politically exploited expression of hatred
2: an object of hatred
as a Transitive Verb:
1: to feel extreme enmity toward : to regard with active hostility
2: to have a strong aversion to : find very distasteful
as an Intransitive Verb:
: to express or feel extreme enmity or active hostility
When you dislike a person’s lifestyle, that is hate. But wait a minute, I am just showing them the love I was shown in the Bible by telling them that their lifestyle is leading them to damnation and separation from God. Seriously? You are using a book that leads us to love all of creation for hate, which 1 John tells us is what takes us out of the light?
Do not hate. Lift others up as God does.
Walk in the light and show love to all of God’s children.
Loving People. Loving God.
aSacredRebel 