No Place For Hate Against Others

In The Family Of God (Matthew 5:43-48, Romans 12:9-21) “But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. (Luke 6:27-28) Friends, as I look out ar=t our world today, I see a huge gape, even in the so called Chistian community. There is a very large difference in the feelings of many christians, between the teachings of Jesus—centered on love, mercy, and forgiveness, where many, even believers in Christ and those teachings lean towards division and hostility, even sparking riots and such. This society today seems to often to come down struggling with our human nature and really holding onto and deminstrating the true teachings Jesus promotes in scripture. My take is, that most people hate the sinner rather than hating the sin. We are to love the sinner while hating the sin that they commit. There is a huge difference. If we turn to Jesus actions in (John 2:13-17), Jesus hates the sin so much that He twisted cords into a whip and disciplines those involved. He drove out the livestock and the sellers, scattered the coins, and flipped over the tables. In this Jesus did not sin, why? Because in His cleansing of the temple Jesus was acting out of a righteous anger against the sins that were being committed by turning Gods house into a den of thieves. He showed divine authority in action protraying that anger. He did not have a personel vandeta against any of those in the temple, no personal malice, it was not a selfish anger nor was it breaking the law, by starint a riot and causing violence to erupt by an unrully crowd, Often, if we were to follow our Christian History, we can often see widespread hatred and division with hatred against the people rasther than hatred and action against the sin being committed. Man in their fallen nati=ure tends to turn to violence, instead of inforcing their moral ideal through unconditional love and therefore they often turn to personal ego, fear, mob tactics a feeding frinzy and selfish ambition. We see through out history, our christian roots are often turned into a weapon. Where our contemporary culture,and our religion itself has become a weapon for gaining power and the upper hand in a situation. Friends listen, we are not to use our faith to condem others but rather stand firm and still if possible extend love and grace, living at peace if at sall possible. (Romans 12:8) We need to hold to the core message more than distorting it. Jesus knew that there would be a lot of hate tention and resistance to genuine true love and forgiveness. In (John 15:18–21) Jesus tells us, His followers here that if we are going to follow Him and keep His commandments, we will face rejection and hostility from a world resistant to radical grace, truth, and self-sacrifice, and yes much of that will some from self-righteous christians who think they know best and do not take into consif=deration what the teaching of Jesus actually say. Because for them, they have hardened their hearts and true, actual forgiveness is difficult to do, because of hurt and a build up of hatred towards the parties that have hurt them. Where what Jesus teaches, is to not absorb the pain, but to rather give that pain to Him, (Matthew 11:28–30, 1 Peter 5:7) in so doing we squash the desire to take revenge, then through the loving care of Jesus working through us we are able to extend mercy and love, instead of hate and revenge to those who have done wrong to us I understand and I know that this kind of action goes against human instinct, that wants to react to injustices against us. Friends as long as we are alive on this earth, we will remain with our humaness challenges. And this battle against anger and revenge will continue to hound us. But, we need to focus on living as Jesus lived, and continue to work towards forgiveness and reconciliation,seeking to be at peace with all people, especially with those who are believers. We need to seek to restore relationships and see loving change and justice continue to bring change through the scriptures like Sermon on the Mount, and usung Christ as our prime example of living the Christian life. Friends, if we are to overcome the social hatred that is prominent in our world today it will require intentionality and a personal relationship ith Christ, where we become once again humble before God and begin to listen to what He teaches and putting it into action by showing compassion rather than retaliating to things that seem to be against us. Jesus humbled Himself unto death. Read (Philippians 2:5-11) We can see in (Acts 9:17-22) How Saul, now known as Paul,found that Jesus (his example) pushed away hatred and instead He offered a transforming love and forgiveness. Jesus will always work with us, in us and through us, He promises to never leave us not forsake us, and will be with us, to the end of the world. as we commit to Him and intentionally do His will, He promises, Read (Matthew 28:18-20) Lord Jesus, thank you for motivating me to be intentional in my forgivenss and in not alloowing hate to overcome me. Help me, live in peace with all, as muchas if possible in my day to day life. Help me change more and more to be like you, and to love and forgive and to be generous towards all people, but especially those who are believers and are in need, we must take care of our own. who are in need. it is in your name I pray AMEN.