Sunday Scripture: 1 John 2:11

1 John 2:11 - "But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him." (NIV)

The recent shooting rampage at the U.S. Holocaust Museum got me thinking about violence and hatred. It seems that the world is full of people bent on destroying one another based on race, religion, finances, and whatever else they can find to hate one another for. Is this type of action really what God wants from us?

The gunman who walked into the Holocaust museum this week hated so much that it incited him to violence. He blamed the world's ills on the Jews and African Americans. He hated so much that he took a life. Yet, this is what the Bible warns us about.

This verse in 1 John reminds us that, as Christians, we can't allow hate to blind us. It can be used as a tool of the enemy, and we need to learn to love one another more. Sometimes I like to imagine a world where everyone takes the time to care about one another. Where we affirm one another and respect our differences. Then I return to the harsh reality where salacious gossip and deadly violence become the topics of the day.

We must, as Christians, learn to love more and hate less. We must learn how to speak out about our faith from a place of love, and not of anger, envy, or hate. God uses us as his voice, and we can be instruments of change for things God cares about, but as Jesus was sent here out of love, we must speak and act from that same place of love. If we don't, if we just hate, we are in danger of not only becoming blinded by the darkness, but consumed by it as well.