Friday; September 18

Have you noticed how easy it is to “hate” something? There are certain words we use in modern English that can’t really stand on our own and hate is one of those words. We can hate meatloaf … we can hate the Oakland Raiders … we can hate our hairdo … we can hate sin … we can hate a political leader … we can be prosecuted for a hate crime … we can even hate someone to the point of wanting them dead. Since we use the word in so many ways, we almost need to explain what we mean when we do use it. In fact, when we are tempted to use the word hate it might be better to use a synonym that helps us better define our intent.


The other day I was reading a passage and came across another interesting aspect of hate, “The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.” (I John 2:10-11). As I contemplated this observation it helped me understand that hate – or disliking someone – makes it harder for us to live the good life. When we love someone (when we want the best for them) we see them clearly; but when we hate them our own emotions taints what we know about them. More importantly, when we hate someone, we are apt to stumble in our own darkness and cause them harm or be so blinded by our own emotions that we fail to see them accurately.

Not only could it be in our best interest to eliminate the word “hate” from our own vocabulary, it is most definitely in our best interest to remove the emotion from our lives. I have enough trouble doing what is right, I don’t need to be even more blinded by the darkness of hatred.

Think About It!

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