Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him. 1 John 2:10-11
Blindness has got to be one the toughest things in the world to live with. Have you ever tried to navigate your way through an unfamiliar place in the dark?
Like trying to find the bathroom in a pitch black house in the middle of the night? Or wearing a blindfold?
For the person living in darkness, running into things is a common occurrence. Stumbling over things happens all the time.
So when John says that hatred of another person puts a person in darkness and causes him to be blind, he saying something very significant.
How do we fall into hating someone? And are we fully aware of the devastating consequences of hatred? Hatred can easily cost us our soul.
How does this passage impact you?
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This passage impacts me by helping me learn how to love others even though I don't really feel like doing so. Blindness, spiritually is like the kiss of death if you don't love your brothers and sisters in Christ and I don't want to go there.
ReplyDeleteI think hatred (aka blindness, darkness) starts small and blossoms over time. We let issues sit and fester instead of dealing with them openly and honestly. So we work ourselves into a lather, imagining ourselves into levels of issues that don’t even exist. It is why when we hear of issues that have led others to fights, divorces, church splits; those of us not involved directly often say “How could they have done this over such a small thing?”. Well, it WAS a small thing when it started, but left to simmer on low heat a few months or years, you’ve got a major issue on your hands. Simple solutions work fine on simple issues. Once the issues get a full head of steam the solution is a lot more complex and painful.
ReplyDeleteLike taking out the trash regularly. If you don’t it will eventually stink up the place and you’ll have to have the house disinfected, deodorized and all the little critters exterminated. Diseases, allergies and much bigger and serious stuff can result. You might even have to tear down the house and move. Just because you didn’t take out the trash promptly.
So when you have an issue, if you need to address it with a brother or sister, do so quickly before it stinks up the place….
I don't want to be spiritually blind. Help me learn to not hate those who are considered unloveable in the eyes of the world, yet precious in the sight of the Almighty.
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