Into the Fire

I remember tears in my eyes with my squeaky voice shouting at my older brother, “I hate you!” You ever do that to a sibling or a friend? God forbid to a parent? As an adult when I remembered I spoke those words to my brother, I felt horrible. I told him so, too. He laughed. My brother was a terrible tease, and he used to drive me to near hysteria. He teased his own kids, too. He’s toned it down in these much older years. Some, anyway.

The thing is I never hated my brother. I hated his teasing. But I was young and foolish and frustrated, and those were handy words to express hyper-emotion. I confess I’m one of those people who uses the hate verb way too much. I’m careful not to truly hate individuals, and I seldom use the word around people who don’t know my tendency for extremes. In other words, outside the presence of my family and friends, I rarely use the word. Except for on this blog, I suppose.

Anyway, there’s a huge chasm between “hating” an opposing football team and really hating a certain people group or an individual. Christians know the difference between hating a person and hating that person’s sinful behavior. We might be inclined to hate but force that option into the waiting hands of our scarred Savior.

Some Christians disguise their hate. They pick out characteristics in others which provoke them or once hurt them and they manufacture a justification for their obvious hatred. Of course they never address it as such, and they claim the sin(s) of the object of their vindictive conduct deserves their wrath. And I’m not talking murderous behavior here. I’m talking bad behavior, wrong statements, or bad judgment. Not threatening, evil, horrendous actions.

When the desire to get even overruns the need to forgive, we’ve lost our hold on Jesus. We’ve dropped the rope which He held for us, and we’ve fallen willingly into that fiery chasm of hellish notions that tells us we have every right to hold onto our anger, our pride, and our self-applied justice of hateful vengeance. Oh how we assume He’ll understand. And so what if He doesn’t because He should, shouldn’t He?  

When the hate factor consumes people, it never turns out well. There may be some temporary satisfaction in punishing someone who’s incurred your wrath, but eventually when the Lord Himself lets go of the rope for the un-forgiveness in your soul, it won’t be pretty. You see, that un-forgiveness thing is of major importance to the Savior who forgives us for our ugliness in the sin department. He didn’t appoint us judge and jury. Only He occupies that seat.

If hate is brewing in your heart for someone who’s done you dirt, forgive them. You don’t have to like them, you don’t have to forget what they’ve done, and you don’t ever have to trust them if you ever did. Don’t hold onto sin. It’ll devour you. You do reap what you sow. Forgive. Let the hate factor be a non-factor.  

God, forgive me when I’m so tempted to hate. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.