Hate is Murder

“Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.” 1 John 3:15 NIV

In reading this verse, I really had to stop and think about what it meant. It sounds so intense. Hate being likened to murder. That’s pretty steep. I needed to understand and really see why God felt that way.
      When we hate someone, our hearts become hardened to them. We don’t care about them or their well-being. In fact, if we’re honest, we even secretly wish them ill. We don’t want to see them prosper or just being happy.
      I have to be honest, I could see how it was wrong, but I still didn’t see how it was murder. So, I pondered it some more.
      I began thinking of it in terms of someone’s salvation and realized that you can commit a spiritual murder without committing a physical one.
      Maybe you never killed the person you hate or even harmed them, but you left the door open for the devil to come in. You became an accessory to the murder the devil was about to commit because you refused to allow God to use you.
      You couldn’t stand the thought of doing something good for that person. In fact, you thought that no interaction with that person was a good thing-more Christian than what you may have done or said if you actually interacted with that person. Too bad God doesn’t see it that way.
      He wanted to use you but you were unyielding. That person fell deeper into sin as the enemy wrapped his hands around them. You were the only way that could do something and reach them but instead you just watched while the enemy killed them spiritually.
      God is just. He knows you were there and didn’t try to stop it, and for Him, that makes you as good as the enemy who killed that person.
      Don’t let it be too late. Don’t harbor hate in your heart and let it become hardened. The price of spiritual murder is being locked out of God’s presence. He will sentence you to death as a murderer. As one who didn’t obey His will and let His love cancel out your hate.
      Don’t be fooled into thinking that you’re holy because you think that you are hating the sin and not the sinner. When you will do nothing to help God (to allow Him to use you to) lift that person out of their sin and redeem their lives, it just shows that the sin wasn’t the object of your hate, the person was.
      Let your light shine regardless of how you feel or what the person is like (Jesus told us to love even our enemies-Matt 5:43-48), and be ready to share God every opportunity you get. This verse is a really heavy threat. Don’t test God. You already know His law and He will hold you accountable for it.
      Let Him fill you with love. It may take time, but it all starts with your obedience.