The Problem with Hate

"We have so many battles going on in America today that we should be a people of prayer. Our leaders need prayer. Our schools need prayer. Our youth need our prayers. Our families need our prayers." - Billy Graham (in a Facebook post from Franklin Graham.)

My heart is extremely heavy this morning. I awoke to the news that at the end of what had been a peaceful demonstration, police officers were attacked in a vicious, organized military-like assault, creating a further divide in an already tense society. And it all stems from hate. Whether it is from distrust, fear or ignorance, it is still hate. This hate will not go away. It is a part of this world, and has been since Adam's fall. It was here before us, and will be here after us, unless Jesus returns to save us from ourselves.

There are those today who are blaming the media, saying its constant reporting is only making things worse. There are those on both sides of the gun control issue, each using this a "proof" of their position. There are even those using this as a political Republican/Democrat battle. I'll not go into the relevance of any of these issues, because they do not actually address the problem. The media is not the issue. Gun control is not the issue. Politics is not the issue. HATE is the issue. HATE is the target we should focus on. HATE is what we must fight.

I've long believed that right and just causes, when fueled by hate, are still wrong and unjust. If God is love as 1 John 4 states, then if follows (vs. 19-21) that anything fueled by hate is not of God. The beginning of this chapter states very clearly that the spirits are to be tested, because not everything is of God. Trouble is, there seems to be more rash judgments than testing of spirits going on.

Then how are we to battle the hate that is consuming our world at a more rapid and rabid pace that ever before. 1 John 4 contains a key to this as well.

"Greater is He in you that he that is in the world" (vs.4)

 

But we cannot use God as our own personal weapon of destruction, releasing a barrage on our enemies, raining fire from above. So then, what? Verse 7 contains that answer.

 

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God"

 

The only way the world will see anything but hate, is to show love, even to those undeserving. (Matthew 5: 43-48) Especially to those undeserving, because they need it most. Jesus cannot operate fully through His church unless His church operates through His love. Without love, all of our "good intentions" and "righteous causes" are no better than a noisy gong or clanging cymbal. (1 Corinthians 13)

 

So in response to the world today, I suggest first, we pray. Then, we reach out to all who are hurting, whose passion and fear and hate drive them on, and show them something revolutionary...love. God's unfailing love. In the fight against hate, this is the only weapon we truly have. The only weapon we need.