Hating In The Name Of God
Scriptures: Matthew 5:43-44; 22:37-40; 1 John 2:9-11; 3:14-16; 4:7-21
Introduction:
Ten years ago on this day I left my home early in the morning to drive to Wichita, KS. When I came through Emporia, I called a friend at her job to chat. When she was not at work, I called her at home thinking she might have been sick. She told me that she was not at work because she was watching the news. She told me there had been an explosion at the World Trade Center and that it could have been a plane. The time was 9:00 a.m. As she told me what was happening, a few minutes later she said, “Oh my God, another plane just flew into the second tower!” At that moment we both realized what was happening, that our nation was under attack. When I arrive at my hotel almost an hour later, I was watching the TV in the hotel lobby with a group of other travelers. It was being reported that it was a terrorist attack and there had been more than one plane involved with more targets than just the World Trade Center. As I stood in the lobby, I watch in horror as the first tower fell, the time was 9:59 a.m. Shortly thereafter the news flashed about another plane crashing in an open field. About twenty minutes after that the second tower fell at 10:28 a.m. Eastern time. On September 11, 2001 our world changed forever and most adults know exactly where they were when those plane hit the towers. The total number of individuals who lost their lives on September 11, 2001 was 2,995. In the ten years following the attacks approximately 236,500 people have died because of the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Of this total, 6,226 were U.S. military personnel; 2,300 were U.S. contractors and 279 were humanitarian workers and these numbers will continue to grow. When will this stop?
On the day that it happened and whenever I see the footage, I think about those who died and those who tried to help. I think about the people who were on the floors above where the planes hit who knew based on what happened below them they would not make it out. I think about those who jumped to their deaths versus burning alive and wonder how those who think someone who commits suicide immediately goes to hell would rationalize their actions. I think about all the people who left home that morning with plans of things they were going to do that day and the days following not realizing that this would be their last day on earth. I think about the families of those who died, who got up that morning, said goodbye to their loved ones for the last time without knowing it. I think about the kids who were born after their fathers died and will never know them personally. I think about the unknown heroes who gave their lives so that others could live. Those who had a hand in stopping some of the terrorists at the cost of their own life. Those who tried to help their fellow man even though they did not know them.
Finally I think about the hate: the hatred in the name of God that drove these individuals to do what they did and I ask myself the question, “Am I just like them?” I have titled this message “Hating in the Name of God” and I hope that this message will cause you to reflect on your inner thoughts as it relates to hate. I will continue with my message on faith next week.
I. Hating My Brother
After 9/11, the general consensus in the U.S. was that Osama Bin Laden, the founder of al-Qaeda, deserved to be hated for what he did. Until the attacks on 9/11, many U.S. citizens hadn’t even heard his name although he had been killing people through terrorist attacks in other countries for years. It was not until it hit us at home that we came out of our slumber and understood what other countries had known for years; that no one is safe against a terrorist attacks. So he became the focal point of our hatred. But it was not enough to hate him; we had to hate all Muslims, regardless of their stance on terrorist’s activities. Even though there were Muslims at ground zero trying to help rescue victims, they were still seen as the enemy. People had neighbors who they had known for years all of a sudden become a target of hate because of their race and/or religion. And what is so scary is that all of this hatred was in the name of God. The worst hatred in the world is that which has been deemed approved of by God. As long as God approves of my hatred then I am free to act on that hatred as my heart desires. But is this true? Listen to the words of our Savior as it pertains to this subject.
Matthew: 5:43-44: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Matthew: 22:37-40: “And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
These are just a few verses of many that explain Jesus’ view on hate. He made it plain that hatred should not have a place in our lives. He gave us the example. Even as they were preparing to kill Him, He prayed for His accusers and asked God to forgive them. Jesus wanted us to know that we should walk in and exemplify love at all time, especially when faced with someone who does not reciprocate it or in our minds, deserve it. Consider this example: in Luke the tenth chapter a lawyer asked Jesus “Who is my neighbor?” The lawyer was attempting to trap Jesus. Instead of answering him directly, Jesus told him the story of the Good Samaritan in verses 30-36. As you recall, in this story there was a man from Jerusalem traveling to Jericho and was attacked by thieves. They beat and robbed him and left him for dead. Several people walked by and saw the man laying there. One was a priest, who of all people should have had compassion on the man, but when he saw him he crossed to the other side of the road. Another was a Levite, again, someone who understood God’s law, and when he saw him he too crossed to the other side and left the man there. Finally a Samaritan came by and when he saw the man, he felt compassion and he helped the man. He cleaned the man’s wounds and took him to an inn to be cared for. All of this he did at his own expense. When Jesus finished the story, He asked the lawyer who was the fallen man’s neighbor and the lawyer answered that it was the one who helped him. The point in this story is that the one person who had every reason not to help the man was the one person who did. The Samaritans were despised by the Jews and were viewed as “half-breeds” by them. There was open hostility between these two groups of people. If anyone should not have helped the man by our standards, it would have been the Samaritan. Today this would be similar to one of us Americans helping an al-Qaeda member who was stranded on the side of the road injured.
Jesus was never about hatred in any shape, form or fashion. Turn with me to 1 John. Let’s starts with chapter two and verse nine.
1 John 2:9-11: “The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
1 John 3:14-16: “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
1 John 4:7-8: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
1 John 4:18-21: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love because He first loved us. If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.”
In these verses it becomes clear that hate and love cannot fully exist in the same space. We are commanded to walk in love at all times, not just when it is convenient or when someone loves us back. The hardest thing to do is to love someone that the world tells you to hate. We are instructed to hate all Muslims or at best to tolerate them. After 9/11, even the innocent became guilty by association. Little children were being harassed in school by their friends who two days earlier could be found hanging out at their homes. Hate is not of God and I want you to concentrate on verses 18-21 of 1 John chapter 4. I want to make this very personal.
Hate is not of God because in order to hate someone there is a level of fear that goes along with it. First if we’re walking in love we do not need to fear the punishment of eternal damnation for those who hate. But there is another considering for the relationship between fear and hate. If you have someone that you hate right now, when you break down all of the reasons and justifications, you will find that there is some level of fear attached to the hatred. That fear which is a subtle driver of the hatred is not of God regardless of how justifiable it might be. As Christians we do not have the right or the authority to hate. The bible makes it very clear that we cannot love God whom we have not seen and hate our fellowman that we see all the time. We have justified our hatred by taking the Word of God, especially the Old Testament, and using it as a foundation of justifiable religious God-ordained hatred of man. We do this with such grace and poised that it becomes a part of our make-up. What happened ten years ago was a tragedy and has changed our world. We do not feel safe anymore and that fear now drives our hatred. When the news came out that Osama Bin Laden had been killed, there was rejoicing. People were dancing in the streets. Christians were praising God that this mad man, this terrorist, had been killed. Some wished that he could have been resurrected and killed again for all the lives he had taken. In our rejoicing was an element of teaching for our children, that it is okay to hate the “bad person” and be glad when they are killed. Was there any Christian who prayed for his soul before he was killed? Did anyone pray that he would come to a knowledge of Christ and understand what Christ’s principles for living were?
Hating is easy because it feeds on fear and we have a lot of fear to go around. However, the worse hate in the world is the hate that is supposedly approved of by God. If you’re not sure what this hate is, let me give you a few examples.
o There was a time in the U.S. when blacked were murdered for just being black and it was done it the name of God. Blacks were taken from their homes by white men wearing sheets and hanged on trees. There are many God-fearing racists who believed that God ordained them to kill any black man, woman or child that dared to step out of line. I do not have to remind you of Dr. Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, or Emmett Till. Their murders were driven by hatred and fueled by fear. Some segments of America have a history of terrorist’s activity against blacks but it was done in the name of God and justified by Scripture.
o During this same time period there were whites being murdered by other whites because they had compassion for their black fellowman. These individuals believed in the good of all mankind and suffered accordingly.
These were dark days in America’s history and we have come a long ways since those days but racism in America is still alive and well and it cuts both ways. Our hope lies with our children. If we do not teach them to love while standing firm in God’s word, we will lose this battle we are raging. Racism is driven by hate which is fueled by fear. But as none of you are racists, so let me touch on a few individuals you might find yourself hating.
o Muslims, Catholics, Jehovah Witnesses, Buddhists and many other religions different from ours. We might not come out and say we hate them, but we treat them differently; would not cross the road to help them; thinks if something bad happened to them it is justified because they did not believe in Christ. What fear could drive this hatred? The fear that they could change our world with their beliefs; the fear that they are different and their beliefs goes against the Bible therefore God approves of our distain for them.
o Homosexuals: Not only do we hate the act, we hate the people committing the act. What fear drives this hatred? The fear they could give us aids; make our children like them; corrupt the next generation; and the list goes on and on. If God loves the person while hating the sin, should we do less? Do we not understand that hate in this fashion is wrong?
o Family and former friends who have hurt us. Many of us have family and friends who we hate. The hate is demonstrated by how we treat the person or how we go out of our way not to treat the person in the right way. The hate is fueled by the fear that whatever they did they will do it again. We dress up the hate as self-protection and scriptural. Sometimes we do not call it hatred, but just a strong “dislike”. Sometimes the hatred is like a smoker – it slowly cooks until the last straw and then you’re done. Sometime it is like a broiler that cooks within minutes. Whichever it is for you, it is not of God. You cannot hate your fellowman and love God too.
All of us have been touched by hatred at some point it our life. Maybe we were on the giving end or the receiving end. Regardless, hatred is personal and not of God. We make a choice to hate and in those choices, we teach others to do the same, especially our children. Our hate is primarily driven by some internal fear and we justify that fear with God’s word. If God approves of our hatred then I can still get into heaven because my hatred is God approved and justified.
September 11, 2001 shook us to our core. But let us not forget today or any other day that those actions were fueled by a man who hated. Those actions uncovered within us a deep hidden hatred that we have now elected to bring back to the surface in a manner acceptable by humanity. We can hate our neighbor who does not believe what I believe. We can hate and disrespect our President because of the color of his skin and blame it on his politics. We can hate our neighbor because of his religion. We can had another political party (and everyone who claims that party) because they do not have the same core of beliefs that I have. We can hate the homeless because they are homeless and draining our resources. We can hate the unemployed because they could find a job if they wanted one. We can hate the rapist, adulterer, liar, fornicator, and racist because they’re probably going to hell anyway. We can hate our bosses because they treat us bad. We can hate our jobs because they do not pay us enough. We can hate our neighbor because they are rude and offensive. We can find a reason to hate anyone we so choose and through that hatred we can get closer and closer to going to hell ourselves – according to what God’s word says.
Do not let us repeat 9/11 in our hearts by the way we treat our fellow man. There are more ways to kill than to shoot someone or crash a plane into a building. We can kill with our words, thoughts and deeds, but it will not be an instantaneous death, but a slow burn. We need to understand that often time it is not the person who we hate that dies because of our hating them, but we ourselves. We cannot forget that day and the hatred that caused it less we will repeat it. I want to leave you with this final thought if you have not gotten it already: If we live a life of hating our brothers and sisters, we are just like the terrorists who hijacked the planes. Our methods are different, but our hearts the same – filled with hate. Do not think God will see us any different!
I will continue with my faith series next time. May God bless and keep you is my prayer.
