Christship - Love Thy Neighbor

 

Love Thy Neighbor

 

 Galatians 5:14 | For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”

Dear Friends, I gracefully present to you the 4th topic of this Lenten season. It gives me immense pleasure when I write about the word of God and most importantly what He has done for me. I only bring to you my personal experiences and relate it to the words in the scripture, hoping that it will spread the
word of God to many nations and people know that He is a living God. He has not only given us the
right to become His children (John 1:12), he has also asked us to proclaim His name and go and
make disciples of all nations and preaching His commandments (Matthew 28: 19-20).

This blog is not about completely about love thy neighbour but how we can stop hatred in order to follow this commandment. It’s a sensitive topic yet a very important one and something that is very close to me because it has taken me years to practice & master this in my life. As love comes naturally, hate too and it’s not necessary for someone to have hurt you directly to feel that hate. Sometimes if they harm your loved one, you can have a strong hatred towards that person and in some cases, you just happen to hate or dislike someone strongly for no reason. This has happened to me a lot however whatever may be the type or reason for hatred, the answer is very simple and written all over the Bible—LOVE—1 Corinthians 13:13 | So now faith,hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

In order to understand why Love is the greatest or how should you love all equally, one must understand hatred and I am going to analyze the three common reasons of hatred I have just mentioned and base it upon some generic examples and share how we can together overcome hatred and follow this precious commandment of our Father!

 

1.   PERSONAL HATRED:
This is the most common form of hatred, don’t you agree? We tend to hate someone when they directly harm/hurt us. Why do we do that? We could have hurt them back or harmed them however we chose to water this seed called hate and let it grow into a tree that cant be cut. Have we ever wondered what causes this feeling? Well, hatred has many definitions if you browse or look up in a dictionary, but I like this one which defines hatred as an  ‘outburst of an emotion triggered by a negative feeling based on your expectation of a person or a situation.’ And here your expectation is the key word. Let me give you an example; when your partner cheats on you, you go to the extent of hating him/her as you expected them to be loyal to you. Now is loyalty a good expectation in relationships? Well, it’s a tricky one, the Bibles teaches us on sins and infidelity in the above example is a sin. However, the question here is not about sin but about your expectation of your partner!

Now you see, there is a partner angle too. So expecting loyalty is not wrong but is loyalty the actual issue or the person not being loyal is? Is this a bit confusing? Initially it does look complicated but it’s not as its correlated. Many a times we have heard people around us saying– separate the person from the issue and this is exactly what it is. When we do that, we can nail the problem and resolve rather than piling on it. In this example what is the issue that you can see—is it loyalty or is it the partner not being loyal? In a personal hatred, it’s always the person and not the issue. So, when you know that is a person issue, instead of dealing with it, we tend to get all judgmental and accuse the person of their behaviour. And we don’t stop at that, we quickly play the victim game in which we portray ourselves as the weakling and use hate as a weapon to protect our feelings.  

We just don’t realize, hate is not from God for God is love - 1 John 4:8 - But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

 

HATRED WHEN OUR LOVED ONES ARE HARMED
This is a tricky one all the time as it’s a myth between what you feel as opposed to what it is. A lot many times you have seen your family member, or a close friend hurt by someone, and you subconsciously develop hatred towards that person. This hatred is also person centric as we tend to ask the question; how can he/she hurt my loved one? This hatred gets more dramatic than the personal one we just saw as beyond some level it’s our imagination that makes the hatred grow stronger. Lets take the same example, so imagine if your friend or a sibling goes through a infidelity situation, where their partner has cheated. Your rage becomes even bigger than the actual person in question as you just can’t see injustice happening to your loved one. The rage develops into hatred when you see your sibling depressed for a long time or even when he/she choses to forgive their partner. Hence even if we are not the ‘victims’, our judgement or ideology of life makes hatred more of a natural feeling than a negative one.

Some of you may disagree with me and its okay to agree to disagree. Hold on to that thought while we see the last type of hatred.

NO REASON TO HATE
This happens to me a lot. For no reason at all I hate or dislike some people. I have tried to make sense as many a times I don’t event know that person and probably just met them once and just by one look, I don’t feel comfortable or tell my self, keep away. Not sure if any of you have experienced this. This is not personal and yet you make it as it’s the unknown you want to explore. In my case, I don’t even walk up to them to find out who they are or is there some reason for my uncomfortable feeling. I just choose to not like the person.

 I am sure you all would have experienced at least one of the types mentioned above and can relate. What we are going to see is how can we use the word of God to overcome this negative feeling that can only lead us in the dark but remember we are children of the light!

HOW TO OVERCOME HATRED? 

I am sure there are many ways, however these three verses below sums its all and has personally helped me to overcome hatred.

1. Matthew 5:7 | You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. This is the first check you need to do when someone deliberately hurts you or you are hurt by their actions. When we are not perfect in everything, we cannot expect others to be. Who are we to judge for its written “Judge not, that you be not judged”—Matt 7:1. Therefore learn not to judge anyone for their mistakes and instead seek God to help you through this difficult situation. Nothing is impossible for God, so cast your troubles upon Him rather than forming a personal vendetta and deviating from the word of God.

2. Matthew 5: 14-15 | For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. This is the most difficult of all things we can do but not as tough as its sounds to be. It takes time, but with diligent prayer and constantly seeking God, one can forgive others their trespasses. Also remember, forgiving others is for you to be at peace.

3. Romans 12:21 | Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. This is one my personal favorite verse from the Bible. Everything that is negative and causing us to deviate from the word of God is evil. And the only way to overcome evil is with good. This also comes only with practice. If we say we believe in the word of God and believe in the truth then we ought to change or mould ourselves so that we not only follow all the commandments but spread love for He first loved us - 1John 4:19.

With this thought I end my article, hoping it has served His purpose in you.

May God Bless you.