A Redemptive Answer to a Problematic Absurdity

Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer (man slayer): and you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him (1 John 3:15).

The individual who hates another person is the instrumental cause of his own nefarious self-definition.  Yes, he may invoke a plethora of convoluted reasons for his mental attitude sin of hate against other brethren but they are the mere pyrotechnics of self-righteousness.

How disarming are the words of the great Apostle John.  He was one of the most intimate disciples of the Iesous.  How he loved the Iesous and how the Iesous loved him.  John has known the enormous power of self-sacrificial love.  He cannot go back and live within the cramped space of what he thought was love before he met the Iesous. After a genuine encounter with the Iesous reality heretofore known vanishes and eternal life is no mere intellectual assent to a doctrinal statement it is an experiential reality.

John is not merely annoyed by the one who hates.   He is appalled by the intrinsic lie of pretending to know the Iesous and yet treats another, who equally knows the Iesous, but may perhaps have a different accent, skin color, or physical limitation as of lesser value or worth.

Hate is the penalty that the hater has given to the hated one(s).  Yes, it is a gift of sorts.  It is the gift of personal negation or non-being or lesser being.  What if the Iesous gave his life for man made racial classifications?  John will have nothing to do with absurdities, and he will not allow absurdities to be placed at the foot of the Cross.

The murderer must forsake his hate.  The murderer must confess and repent of his sin of hate.  He must have his soul (psyche) cleansed of the wounds of hate.  The Iesous will receive him too, and release him from the self imposed prison of hate.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please visit his website.