Hate Thy Neighbor

I grew up in the church, went to Sunday school every week and learned a lot of Bible verses along the way. I, as so many in my small town, grew up learning about God's love.

We learned in Mathew 22, that Jesus said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first greatest commandment. And the second is like it, Love your neighbor as yourself"

Another in Luke 6, "Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them........But love your enemies, do good to them and lend to them without expecting to get anything back.Then your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High"

John 13 says, "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that your are my disciples, if you love one another"

So what brought me to these scriptures...........I guess it was hate......

Seems like these days, if your neighbor doesn't agree with you on something.....we choose to hate that neighbor. We may tell ourselves that no, we don't hate them, we just disagree. But what comes out of your mouth shows what's in your heart, and too many times it's hate, not love.

It seems that in the past few months, the hatred and anger in this world has jumped out at me like a neon sign. What is even more alarming is that so many of those who confess of following God and accepting Jesus and His ways.......are yelling out with hate and anger the most.

Maybe I let the woes of the world weigh on my heart too much. But maybe we all need to feel the pain a little deeper, listen to our words a little clearer and see if what we profess, is how we live our life.

Just because someone disagrees with us or has different beliefs then we do, doesn't give us the right to make jokes, throw mud or shout with anger.

"Love thy neighbor as thyself".....maybe...just maybe, we don't love ourselves that much. Maybe that's why it's so easy to spew anger and hate out into a world that needs more love.

Sometimes I feel like I'm fighting a loosing battle, trying to express my feelings that there is a better way. Maybe I should let people live their lives the way they choose....no matter what the cost. Maybe I should look deeper inside before I judge others from their outward appearance. But when I see those, yep even those I went to Sunday school with, those that continue to profess God's love, but live the life of one who's lost their way, it overwhelms me.

As I've said before, most of the time when I'm preaching here....I'm preaching to the choir and I'm the lead soloist. I just ache living in world where we show hate to our neighbor, where we show hate to those who disagree with us politically, where we show hate to those we were told to love. Sure we all have the right to express our opinion, but why to we have to express it with so much hatred.

I know that not everyone grew up the way I did, or has the spiritual beliefs that I do. But I do know that we all have a place deep down inside that tells us to stop when we are cruel, stop when we show anger, stop when we make jokes and cynical remarks. Then again, maybe it's been so long since we listened to that voice......we've forgotten how.....

Maybe....just maybe, we can take a moment to reconnect with God, or with that inner voice and say, Hey.......I can do better....I choose to do better.....I will do better........


and the Journey Continues......