No Light When You Hate!

My dear friends, I am not writing to give you a new commandment. It is the same one you were first given, and it is the message you heard. But it really is a new commandment, and you know its true meaning, just as Christ does. You can see the darkness fading away and the true light already shining.

If we claim to be in the light and hate someone, we are still in the dark. But if we love others, we are in the light, and we don't cause problems for them. If we hate others, we are living and walking in the dark. We don't know where we are going, because we can't see in the dark.

I John 2:7-11

There is a difference between not being able to see and walking in the dark. If you are blind, there can be light all around you, but you will not see it. It is only when your blindness is touched by the hand of a healer that your vision will be restored. But if your eyes are good and you can see very well, but you walk in darkness you have no advantage over the man who is blind.

Every man is born blind to the things of God and must be "born again" before he can see the spiritual reality of Eternity! When that new birth happens the eyes of his heart are healed and he can see! It is the wonder of a new Christian who runs after God and is continually seeing truth that he had never imagined before Jesus healed his eyes!

Then there are those whose spiritual eyes have been healed, but because of hate they are walking in the darkness. When you hate, even your enemies, darkness comes over your soul and you can't walk without stumbling. Sometimes the light dims so slowly that you don't even realize that you are in darkness and not in the light.

Search your heart for hate. When you find even a tiny speck in your heart, throw it out by replacing it with love! Pray for God's blessings on the one you hate. If it is within your power do a loving act of kindness for them. Drive out hate and the light will come back to your life!

"Dear Jesus, I am tempted every day to hate someone for something. It is so easy in this evil world. There are so many reasons to hate and I encounter more of them every day! Show me the hate that is still in me and help me cast it out and replace it with Your love so that the light may shine again in my heart now and forever! Amen."