Hate is the opposite of love. Consequently, where love is absent, hate takes its place. 

We can easily say that we don’t hate someone, but we also have no love for that person. If I understand it correctly, there are only two sides to the coin: love or hate. 

There is no neutral ground here. There is no piece of land where there is a ceasefire. There is only one side where love is lived or another side where hate reigns. 

People who live in a place where hate reigns wear an invisible sign around their necks: 15Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know very well that eternal life and murder don’t go together. 

Often, someone does something to you that robs you of love and, yes, then hate moves in. I’ve told you about the man who drank too much and then drove in front of AB’s parents’ car. Both his parents died, and he and his sister were brought up by their grandmother. 

It’s human to push away love from someone like that. You struggle with forgiveness for years, and the hatred eats at you. Only the Holy Spirit can help you get rid of that hatred, so love can come back. 

Fortunately, most of us are spared this. 

But still, we’re not immune to hatred. You see, sometimes we’re envious. We want what others have and because we can’t have it, resentment builds up against the other person. 

When love walks away, hate takes over. 

We must remember that our inherent nature often inclines us toward wrongdoing. During conflict, it reverts to our primal state, causing beauty to vanish and we just want to take what’s not ours.  

When love walks away, hate takes over. 

When hate turns into action, you wear the murderer sign around your neck. Many do not murder physically, but love is still missing, leaving hatred in its place. 

It’s quite bad to talk about people’s actions like this. We aren’t haters or even worse, murderers. 

Perhaps it is time to re-evaluate our relationships and identify areas where we are lacking in love. One of my friends owes someone else a lot of money. I suspect that if we searched deep into their hearts, there wouldn’t be much love to be found. 

We need to make sure we don’t hold anything against anyone in our hearts. We need to make sure there’s love everywhere because then we won’t have any hatred inside us. 

Scripture
1 John 3:11-18 

Reflection
Do you love everywhere?
Where do you need to love more?
Where might there be a little hatred? 

Prayer
Father, help me not to allow any hatred in me, but to always love, even if it’s extremely difficult. Amen.