What in the world is happening to us? Everywhere we turn, there is hate. The people who say they are not haters, claim that anyone who disagrees with them are haters, and they hate them. There are movie stars, politicians, corporate executives, even pastors and priests, jumping on the hate-wagon. Here we have the White House, the president of the United States, encouraging people to get out in the street and be confrontational if they don’t like something or feel that the court system doesn’t deliver justice. Laws, like them or hate them, are what keep society civil and are designed to protect those from predators. But even the laws are hated and those keeping and administering the law, even more hated.
Have we become a nation of haters? It would appear so. The Left hates the Right. The Right hates the Left. People of color hate people of no color. People of no color hate people of color. People of no color even hate people of no color for their own perceived guilt over causing people of color to hate people of no color. When you have people praying to God to help them hate white people, for example, and that person is a divinity theologian, we have some very deep problems. I sometimes drive through a little village and there are signs on the houses saying “Hate doesn’t live here.” But I bet if I knocked on the door and engaged them in a Biblical conversation about abortion or homosexuality, the true resident would appear.
This hate thing, this woke theology or woke religion, has gone too far, really it has. The other day, a former football quarterback expressed his personal opinion that when he watches a football game, he doesn’t want to hear a political lecture. Immediately, leftist sports writers jumped his case about how he couldn’t even say something like that without exercising his white privilege and, perhaps, unconscious bias. Here they are labeling a guy for just expressing his opinion. Couldn’t those who disagree give their counter opinion without labeling the guy and trying to make him out to be some kind of evil person? No, we don’t go there anymore. We just skip to the worst possible scenario and fight from there.
In the days ahead, there is going to be a lot of hate going on. The hate doesn’t just come from those who disagree with Christians. Often Christians react to hate with more hate. The exchange with Christ in Matthew 22:36-39 informs us. A Pharisee asked Christ, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, You shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all they mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, You shall love thy neighbor as thyself.” As followers of Christ, we need to break this cycle of hate wherever we can–Not by the poison of the tongue, but by listening, educating and standing firm on truth. Ephesians 6 tells us to stand against the wiles of the devil, but it’s not answering with spiritual wickedness, but with the full armor of God.
