He that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither
he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes."
So according to the Bible, if you hate your brother or sister in Christ, you're in some
kind of a darkness.
And that darkness is going to cause problems in your life.
It's going to cause you to stumble, to fall, to make bad decisions.
And so it's important that we have love for all of our brethren, all of our sisters in
Christ.
Because we don't have this darkness blinding us and causing us to go into worse sin, or
to damage ourselves, or just to harm the cause of Christ.
And you know, one of the best ways to illustrate this is, I believe with Saul and David, where
Saul ends up having a hatred for David that's completely unfounded, it's without a cause.
And because of that hatred he has towards David, he ends up making all manner of evil
decision.
You know, he kills a bunch of priests of God through the hands of Doeg Edomite.
He inquires of a witch.
He's constantly hunting down David, his life.
He ends up ruining the relationship he even has with his own son.
And so it's really important that we don't get this blinding hatred for brothers and
sisters in Christ, because it'll cause us to go into worse sin.
Look at 1 John chapter 3 verse 9, Whosoever is born of God did not commit sin, for a seed
remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he's born of God.
In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil whosoever doeth
not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother, for this
is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
So again, the Bible's reiterating the fact they're supposed to love one another.
Go to chapter 4 verse 10, Here in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us,
and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins, beloved if God so loved us, we ought
also to love one another.
No man has seen God at any time.
If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
So the Bible says the way that God loved us is a model for how we're supposed to love
our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Skip down to verse 19.
We love him because he first loved us.
If a man say, I love God, and hated his brother, he is a liar, for he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.
Now notice the Bible tells us the way that we love God is actually through loving our
brothers and sisters in Christ.
So it's incompatible to say that you love God and yet hate your brother and sister in
Christ.
Really, it's showing a hatred towards God.
It's showing dissatisfaction towards the commandments of God and the love of God.
And so to have a true, perfect love of God, you have to also love your brothers and sisters
in Christ.
And in fact, loving your brothers and sisters in Christ is the way that you manifest your
love to God.
So someone that's really hateful towards a bunch of saved people really just tells me
they don't love Jesus.
They don't love God.
They really don't have a love for the Bible.
Someone that's willing to be very gracious, kind, and merciful to his brothers and sisters
in Christ is one who has great love for the Lord.