It’s Dark in the Hatred – The Sixth Commandment

It’s Dark in the Hatred

Exodus, 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17

“You shall not murder.”

1 John 2.9

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

Don’t turn the light out on yourself.

Saul of Tarsus was a religious intellectual with a fierce love for God and His Law and a zeal for the nation of Israel unmatched by any in his generation. He fully believed that he was God’s servant, especially when he was persecuting those who professed faith in Jesus Christ. Saul the persecutor went to bed at nights feeling he’d spent another productive day in the service of Yahweh, dragging Christians out of their homes and locking them up in the local jail. He thought he was living in the light of Truth, but it took the light of Truth and the voice of Christ Himself to set Him straight. Only then did he see what a fool he was and how contrary to the Law his actions had been. He never forgot this injustice, but he didn’t brood over it. Instead, he humbled himself before the Lord, stepped out of the darkness into the light, and began to learn how to love his neighbor as himself. John is blunt: If we continue hating our brother – one who shares our testimony of faith in Christ – then we need to be careful lest we be found to be walking not in the light at all, but in the darkness of sin and unbelief. You may not “lose your salvation” over this unremitting anger and hatred, but you will find it very difficult to walk in the light in the rest of your life as long as this murder continues to find a home in your heart.

How would you counsel someone to begin overcoming the anger in his heart for another person? Why is it important that he do this?

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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.

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