Do I hate my brother or sister?

Hello everyone, may the grace of our Lord be with you all.

Last week we discussed things about “hiding ourselves” - in which we briefly discussed how we pretend we are someone we are not, in hopes that someone would love us. This in itself brings up an interesting question, which we will discuss.

What is love?

I John 4:15-21 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. [16] And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. [17] Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. [18] There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. [19] We love him, because he first loved us. [20] If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? [21] And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

We can see quite clearly that God is love. Yes this is nothing new to many of us. Now, let's think about this logically for a moment. In John 14:6 – Jesus said: I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me. Now, if Jesus is these things, what if we live our lives apart from Jesus? Well one would have to say, if you don't follow Jesus you have the end, falsehood and death.

Now – in this same manner we can look at our passage and decipher a few things. God is love. Now, if we're not God would that mean we are not capable to love? Well this passage explains things quite well.

Verse 15: Whosoever shall confess Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God.

It would seem obvious that if one is a believer of the Christ Jesus that God is within that person and therefore that person is capable of love.

The one thing I can say I love about the word of God – just about every possibility or “escape” clause is covered so that there can be no mis-interpretation.

Look at verse 20: If a man says I love God, and hates his brother(or sister) he is a liar.

Think about this for a moment. Think....

If God is love, and God loves us all, and if I say I love God yet hate someone, something isn't adding up quite right. This is exactly one of those points where God doesn't allow us to remain in a “imperfected love”.

This my friends and I will agree, is probably one of the hardest things of the Gospel. I know many people and have heard many people say “I love God” and in addition to that don't like discussing things because “my relationship with God is personal” and moreso than that they don't take on a hatred towards a person because of a bad situation. They take on this situation as if it was there own and start hating and hating.

I'll share an example.

One of my aunt's is going through a divorce. Her husband left her for another woman – yes he was having an affair. He's left her alone to take care of herself and their two children. Now, due to the fact of hours working and stuff it was hard and expensive to try and find a babysitter and stuff, so two of her sisters volunteered to help out whenever possible. I think this is a great example of showing love.

BUT – and yes there's a but. One of the sisters, will do this – believe she's doing the right thing, but she hates my aunt's soon to be ex-husband with a passion. If she had her way, she'd bring him to court and throw the book at him. My question quickly becomes, where's the love in that?

Yes – that is a difficult situation. I'm not asking this sister to be best friends with the soon to be ex-husband, but aren't we called to love our neighbours as ourselves? Now – if she has such a hatred for this man(who is her neighbour) – is she not a liar? Especially when you get into a religious topic with the person and they will agree with you that “I believe in loving your neighbours as yourself, blah blah blah”. Interesting – how people believe it, yet they don't live it.

God is love. A love that was greatly revealed through Christ. A love and passion that was so great that Jesus went and died on the cross for everyone.

If God, dwells within us, and this same love is revealed through us. Should we not have a love and passion for everyone in our lives? Should we not have a zeal for everyone that we come across in our lives?

As I close out today's message, I'd like you to ponder on this thought.

What does loving everyone in the world look like to you, and if this something lacking in your life, how can you make this become a reality?

God bless you all,