Hatred is a war that imprisons both sides of the camp. When one is consumed by hatred, that ill feeling builds up inside. It is like a cancer that starts to eat away into the soul. When someone first gets that cancer, they may not realise it because the signs may not be clearly evident. With time it starts to impair the person’s functioning until it leads them to the grave.
There was a lady who was consumed with anger and hate. How could she forgive the person who murdered her daughter? She struggled through the grieving process which was further compounded by her being denied access to her grandchildren. The years rolled by but the grief did not lessen. She was plagued by ill health and life had lost its joy for her. Ten years later, this same man made an urgent plea for her to visit his dying daughter who had a malignant tumour in her brain. What should she do?
1 John 2:9,11 says, “He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.11 But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eye.” Not only are you blinded in your reasoning, you are also sinning. 1 John 3:15 says, “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” Furthermore, your relationship with God and your salvation hangs in the balance. 1 John 4:20 says, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?”
Hate and love has its byproducts. While love brings joy and heals wounds, hate brings division and wounds the soul. Hate impairs functioning and blocks reasoning. Love builds strong relationships and unites people, enabling them to achieve even greater things. Hate consumes like a raging bush fire, annihilating all that comes in its path. Love comes from the Heavenly Father who loved the world so much that He gave His only Begotten Son as a ransom for the sin of mankind, as found it the golden verse of the Bible, John 3:16. God our Heavenly Father did this act of love to redeem man to Himself and offer him the gift of eternal life. Hate comes from the father of all lies, Satan himself who is hell-bent on cheating mankind of his gift of eternal salvation by offering him momentary pleasure that eventually enslaves him. If Satan tried to tempt the Lord Jesus just before He started His ministry as found in Matthew 4:1-11, how much more will he tempt man?
War takes no prisoners; it consumes utterly. In harbouring the destructive weapon of hate in our hearts, we are killing both ourselves and others. The antithesis to war is peace. Jesus came to earth to give mankind peace. Before He ascended to heaven Jesus said, “My peace I leave with you, not as the world gives, give I unto you.” (John 14:27).
A soldier going to war knows he could end up losing his life. As soldiers of the cross, Christians know that they should not be troubled. When we follow our Lord Jesus Christ as His true disciples, we die to our old nature and take on His nature. We obey His Word and do His will. Hatred should not be given a foothold in our lives.
The lady with the family dilemma decided to face the situation. She rallied a team of prayer warriors to pray for her granddaughter and the estranged father. But something more needed to be done; she had to deal with her anger, bitterness and hate. God works in miraculous ways; she met someone at a conference who prayed with her over her request for the granddaughter’s healing and through a word of knowledge, uncovered deep rooted unforgiveness. This lady received counselling and confessed her sin, released the man and forgave him. The next miracle to follow was the healing of the granddaughter. Praise God! This is living like Christ did, doing what is humanly impossible.
As Christ’s soldiers, we need to exemplify the love that He demonstrated for us. We need to take up our spiritual armour and use those weapons to fight the onslaughts of that age old enemy of our souls. We have the assurance that with Christ we can do all things because every day we die to ourselves so that we can live in Him and through Him. In Philippines 1:21 Paul says, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” We are able to win the war with Christ on our side. Furthermore we must constantly guard our thoughts, our mind and our actions to see that they are all pleasing to God. As we operate as disciples of Christ, the enemy has no weapon that can stand against His power working in and through us. He is a defeated foe and he knows that. The battle belongs to the Lord and we share in that victory. ◊
Linda Pearl
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