Hate rules out love

As we look around our world today and study past history, we see much of humanity filled with hate for one another. While there is much goodness and love in this world, hate seems to take the spotlight. In many cases, the hate has gone on for hundreds and even thousands of years between the same people. Unfortunately, hate exists in our nation’s communities. Yes, in the good old U.S.A. How does this happen?

I have always thought that hate was not inherent in us; that hate is learned. I was reminded recently of a quote by Nelson Mandela. He summed up and confirmed my thoughts. He expressed the following: “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

We can justify our hate by retrieving a past history with a type of person. This is an immediate judgment of a person without even knowing them. We can find so many ways to decide there’s something we just don’t like about a person. Hate or dislike should not be our first action. If we can let love be our first action, we will allow the other person to express their inner self in a way that might surprise us. Our lack of love can produce a false negativity.   

In John 4:20 were hear: “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” And in Proverbs 10:12: “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.” And then in 1 John 2:11: “But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. “

Peter warns us in 1 Peter 2:1-10: "Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation--if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good."

In one statement Peter just wiped out my average day. As much as we focus on Christ, we still stumble in our lives. It's hard not to be angry, deceitful, insincere, hypocritical, envious and slanderous as we go about our daily lives. Even with the best intentions, we slip into these evil ways. I know that I have been a blocker of good communications by the way that I have reacted to others. There are those little demons that I have allowed inside me that pop out at all the wrong times.

I have been a poor example to my brothers and sisters. Just when my correct action or reaction would mean so much to someone, I give in to my sinful nature and in doing so fail to witness as I should for the Lord. My movements toward my natural life nourishments overpower my taste for the spiritual milk of the Lord. The Saints must have had tremendous patience. My lack of patience keeps me from acquiring a taste for the good that is the Lord. I have my own agenda, not His.

Charles Swindoll wrote that ten percent of life is what happens to us and ninety percent is how we react to it. Every day we are challenged to react properly to the things that happen to us. Whether these things are good or bad, we must always seek the Lord's guidance in all things. Satan is waiting in the wings, ready to pull us back from our desire to taste God's spiritual milk. Our patience is short. Benjamin Franklin's words always bring me up short as he wrote, "Patience keeps the dear school, but a fool can learn in no other."

We must confess to the Lord that we have followed too much our own take on life, and pray that He will help us to seek Him in everything that we do. We must ask for His help to have His patience in our lives. His patience with us is a wonderful sign of His love for us. Allow Him to teach us to love our brothers and sisters as he has loved us, and to be patient as we await His guidance.

St. Paul sums things up in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”