Darkness Detector – The Sixth Commandment

Darkness Detector

The sixth commandment

Exodus 20.13; Deuteronomy 5.17

“You shall not murder.”

Leviticus 19.17

“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.”

1 John 2.9

“Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in the darkness”

How to know if you’re really in the Lord’s light.

It’s OK to get angry with people from time to time, as long as that doesn’t become a defining attribute of our character. But you can’t let that anger linger; we must not “let the sun go down” on our anger (Eph. 4.26). The proper way to deal with anger, as the Law indicates, is to go to the neighbor who, as we you it, has offended against you, and talk about the situation until you reach a resolution. The more you allow anger toward a brother in the Lord to fester, the greater is the likelihood it will combust into hate. John says that hate toward our brothers indicates a lack of light, and the lack of light is darkness. If we hate our brothers in the Lord, we are actually living in the darkness, and not the light of life. But if we walk in the Light, as Jesus is in the Light, then we will deal with our anger in appropriate ways, not allowing it to fester into hate so that it issues in one or another kind of murder. See how wise and practical the Law of God is! By submitting to its teaching and walking in its ways, we keep ourselves in the path of light and nurture love for God in neighbor in all our ways.

Have you developed the discipline of daily meditation in the Law of God? Can you see how doing so would help you to walk in the Light as Jesus is in the Light?

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.