Tag Archives: command

What Is Hatred?

Christian life, , ,

WHAT IS HATRED?

Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother or 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 love their brother and sister (1 John 4: 20-21).

What comes to mind when you read the word “hate”? Do you think of actions like insulting, swearing, ignoring or deliberately harming the person you hate? Hatred may include treating someone cruelly, for example, but the Bible’s version of hatred is more explicit than that.

Jesus connected anger with murder.

You have heard that it was said to people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment (Matt. 5: 21-22a).

Hatred, like anger, begins in the heart. When one is angry with someone, for whatever reason, one has an underlying attitude of contempt. It is impossible for one person to make another angry. “You make me angry!” is not true. A person chooses to respond in anger when another provokes him.  If he dwells on the offence long enough, he will begin to hate the offender.

However, hatred is more than an attitude towards another person. One does not have to hold malice in the heart to hate. Hatred is as much indifference to another’s need as ill-will is towards that person.

Jesus told a parable in Matt. 25, which illustrates this point. At the end of the age, when He gathers the nations for judgment, He will measure righteousness by an unexpected standard. How did the individual treat his brother? God recognises that people express their love for Him by the way they treat one another. If someone sees a brother in need and does nothing about it, He interprets their neglect as hatred.

“But isn’t that a bit harsh?” you may ask. In what way can we show our love for God? We cannot do anything for God to express our love for Him except love His people. How can we love His people? We can do whatever we can to make their lives comfortable. Jesus said that we ought to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, visit the sick and the prisoner and relieve suffering wherever possible. He does not expect us to save the world. However, there are simple things we can do meet people’s need where we are.

Assisting people in need does not mean that we must only give them money or goods. There are many ways to show God’s love to those who cross our path every day. A kind word or a word of encouragement goes a long way to lift the spirits of a disheartened individual. We can offer practical help in many different ways by giving our time and attention sometimes just to listen. A listening ear often does wonders for a downcast soul.

What does Jesus ask of us, His children? He wants us to be aware of the people around us. We are often so self-absorbed that we are oblivious to the pain others suffer. We have much to give if we turn our attention away from ourselves. Becoming aware of others and intervening where we can is the right thing to do.

However, Jesus did not instruct us to become busybodies. We need to respect the dignity and privacy of others. We must step in and help only when people value our assistance, not when we become interfering or controlling.

We can just as easily steal from another when we withhold help from him as when we take what does not belong to us. We need to be aware that we express our love for Jesus by our obedience to His commands. He summed up every detail of His desire for our lives in the two greatest commandments:

On one occasion and expert in the law stood up to test Jesus, ’Teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘What is written in the Law?’ He replied. ‘How do you read it?’

He answered, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ ‘You have answered correctly,’ Jesus replied. ’Do this and you will live,’ (Luke 10: 25-28).

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

 

Believe And Love

Bible Study, , , ,

BELIEVE AND LOVE

And this is His command: to believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and to love one another as He commanded us. The one who keeps God’s commands lives in Him, and He in them. And this is how we know that He lives in us. We know it by the Spirit He gave us (1 John 3:23-24).

John’s recurring refrain through this letter is “we know”. How different from the religions of the world which can only say in the end, when they have presented all their fanciful theories and ideas, “We don’t know.” How tragic to get to the end of life, to pass on and to discover that they were wrong all the time.

There are so many reasons why those who believe in Jesus can say with confidence, “We know.” I know that we have been accused of pride and arrogance, that we have no right to force our beliefs on other people, that we are intolerant and guilty of “hate speech” and many other accusations but why should we not be confident in what we believe when we have concrete evidence of its truth.

Take, for example, the historicity of the person in whom we put our confidence. Did Jesus Christ really live? Was He a historical figure? Some have tried to disprove His existence but, apart from the testimony of the Bible (which is a historical document with more early manuscripts to verify the reliability of its records than any other ancient document in history), there is the evidence of secular documents from that period of history that Jesus really lived.

Not only was He a historical figure, but He also did what He said He would do. He was accused of blasphemy by the Jewish Sanhedrin, found guilty and referred to Pilate for sentencing. Pilate found Him not guilty of treason against Rome but sentenced Him to death by crucifixion as a concession to the Jews. He rose from the dead on the third day and appeared to more than five hundred people at different times.

His disciples were so convinced of His identity as the Son of God and His resurrection from the dead because they saw Him that they went everywhere preaching and passing on the good news of the kingdom of God. They were mercilessly persecuted as blasphemers and enemies of Rome because they refused to bow to Caesar as Lord, but they refused to recant. In spite of the threat to their lives, thousands of Gentiles turned from the idols to believe in Jesus and to worship the true and living God.

Was this whole interlude just a series of events which took place in history? God’s trump card as far as authenticity goes, is prophecy. Hundreds of details about God’s Messiah were written into the text of His holy book centuries before they happened and accurately fulfilled in one person, Jesus Christ. This is impossible unless God both planned the events and executed them exactly as He had predicted because He knew the whole scope of history before it happened.

What is even more amazing is that He was able to marry His will and human free will in such a way that He could never be accused of treating human beings like puppets. Peter captured this thought accurately on the Day of Pentecost when he said:

This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men put Him to death by nailing Him to a cross (Acts 2: 23).

Peter could also triumphantly declare:

But God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him (Acts 2: 24).

Jesus Himself prophesied that He would be arrested and put to death by the Jewish leaders, not because they had power over Him but because He willingly laid down His life for His sheep.

The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord (John 10: 17-18a).

The rabble who came to arrest Him had no power to take Him until He handed Himself over to them (John 18:3-6). He had every opportunity to evade arrest, but He approached them and willingly allowed Himself to be taken.

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost sealed every word Jesus had spoken and every promise He had made. The disciples were transformed in an instant from frightened and cowering men to bold and confident apostles of Jesus, facing the wrath of the Jewish leaders with courage and refusing to back down on their message because they knew it was true.

We also, who believe in Jesus, have every right to say, “We know,” because we share the same Lord, the same message, the same Holy Spirit and the same experience of transformation from selfish rebels to submissive and obedient sons and daughters of the living God as they had.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?