CHOOSE LOVE BY CHOOSING CHRIST

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

1 John 3:13-15

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

To love or hate?

It’s sad we find this question even at the forefront of people’s minds today but it’s definitely there culturally.

We find it in politics, definitely rearing its ugly head now as we’re in the midst of a presidential election race.  

We find it in ethnic and racial matters, evident today in the Middle Eastern crisis and war between Israel and Hamas.

I’m an international soccer (football, if properly stated) and it’s amazing (and troublesome) to me where we find hate-filled behavior even spillover toward rival teams, so much so that fans will conduct themselves inappropriately (and even dangerously or criminally) when around one other.  

Even when we get down to a micro-level and see people behaving badly in public places or on the highways, we can find a trend away from loving and valuing others. In fact, we have even formed a well known phrase for drivers who allow anger to lead to incidental hating of another while operating vehicles on the road. Of course, that phrase is “road rage”.

So what’s the cure for this lean toward hating others?

For the answer, we turn to our passage for today from the third chapter of 1 John. Look again at those words here:

Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. Vv. 13-15

Here, we find that the demarcation line that separates love from hate is found in whether or not a person believes in Jesus. In other words, it’s a committed relationship with Christ and a willingness to live as He did that leads a person away from hatred and anchors them in love.

Now, note that this very act of dedicating oneself to Jesus can and will invoke others to hate who you are. Jesus promised this would happen to anyone who wanted to be His disciple. Of interest, John captures the words of our Savior in the fifteenth chapter of his Gospel:

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” Vv.18-19

Jesus was hated so much by the Jewish religious authorities of His day that they arrested Him with no valid charge, falsely accused Him, and pressured the Roman authorities to execute Him by crucifixion.

After His resurrection and subsequent ascension, Christian believers fell under harsh persecution in Jerusalem, much of it instigated by a fervent Jew and member of the Sanhedrin named Saul. This hateful mistreatment of those who followed the Way (Jesus) eventually resulted in a dispersing of believers from Jerusalem into the surrounding provinces of Judea and Samaria, and then to the ends of the world, something predicted by Christ Himself (Acts 1:8). Unfortunately, this exodus of Christian believers didn’t insulate them from persecution for they encountered in everywhere they went, just from different people who rejected what they stood for.

Indeed, the world did hate the disciples of Jesus as they did Him, just as He said it would and this has persisted over time to where we are today, all because we have chosen to belong to Him over the world.

So no Christian, whether in the audience John wrote to in his letter or us reading his words today, should be “surprised” that “the world hates” them. Those living for the world and its ways are going to defer to behavior that is un-Christ like and that will often be a willingness to hate others.

But it’s never okay for a Christian to hate another person. We can and should despise sin but as for the person, grace and forgiveness and love are prescribed.

Need affirmation of this from the scriptures?

Consider this passage as Jesus covers the matter of love versus hatred in His first formal public teaching, a teaching often referred to as “The Sermon on the Mount”:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in Heaven.” Matthew 5:43-45

There you go. If you are in Christ as a believer, you are to love your enemies and pray for them, for in doing this, you will validate the truth that when you believe in Jesus and receive the automatic indwelling of the Holy Spirit, you also have become a legitimate child of the God Most High, your Father in Heaven. We have passed from death to life only because the saving love and grace of our God didn’t wish for us to perish but to have eternal life. And if He could love us for the sinners we were (and still are), then we can love one another and do so through Him.

To love or to hate?

This was the question we started with.

The world permits hatred and even encourages it in many places.

Jesus holds a completely radical opposite view.

And so to avoid hating other, the way there is to choose love by first choosing Christ. It really is the only solution to the problem and I pray you are a part of that solution as you read this today. If not, today can be the day of your salvation and a life altering transformation to be like the One who saved you out of a love that you never earned or deserved, a love that purges hate from the inside out.  

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.