May the mumbling commence!
We continue our inquiry about sin in First John. We have learned so far that sin is lawlessness and denial/lying. That is not all that First John says about sin. Sin is also about hatred. Read a couple of passages from First John that deal with this truth about sin (again from the NJB):
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. (2:11)
Hate is equated with darkness, a blinding darkness. Even a good spiritual GPS will be confounded by the deep darkness caused by hate. By why is hatred so bad? Hatred is bad because of what it leads to. Read from chapter three:
Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous.
Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.
Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. (3:12-15)
Hatred leads to evil actions. Hatred leads to murder. In fact, hating someone is equal to murdering them in the eyes of God.
Hate is put in opposition to love. In many ways the letter of First John is a book of opposites – love and hate… belief and denial… obedience and lawlessness.
Many of the high school students probably wonder why I am so adamant about not hear the word hate of the school bus that I drive. It is because of the depth of evil in that word. Hate is almost used flippantly as love in our society.
We do not fully realize the power of those two words – hate and love.
What is sin, according to the author of First John? Sin is lawlessness, denial, and hatred. Those things seem obvious and easy to pick out. But wait… there’s more.
And that’s for another day.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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