Hate Response – The Sixth Commandment

Hate Response

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.”

Luke 6.27

“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you…”

Not what they do, but what we’d like.

Sometimes we get confused about what’s right and not right in responding to others. We think that if others are unkind to us, or even hateful, we have a right to reciprocate in kind. As though Jesus had said, “Do unto others whatever they do to you.” But the proper response to someone else’s hate is not to hate in return. It is to love and do good to those who hate us. What a tall order! Certainly we won’t be able to do that if we’re harboring anger and hate in our hearts toward those who are mean toward us, or who treat us unfairly. Their sin is no excuse for, and can’t be used to justify, ours. We must hate sin so much that we will not even allow it to come to expression against those who are sinning against us. But, oh how quickly anger can flare! That’s why we need to search our hearts daily, in the presence of God, to determine whether any wrong or hurtful affections are lurking there. If they are, it will be important to confess and evict them. That way, when someone sins against us suddenly, we’ll be better prepared to resist the temptation to return sin for sin, and, instead, will know the love of God that leads to words and deeds of goodness, even toward those who’d just as soon see us dead.

How do you “keep a close watch” over your heart? When do you do this? Has your present practice of doing this proven effective in keeping sin from finding safe harbor in your soul?

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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.