It’s really quite simple: people who love God’s light are living evidence of their new birth and secure place in eternity; and followers of Christ who hate are doomed to languish in darkness.
“If we say that we are in the light, yet hate others, we are in the darkness to this very hour. If we love others, we live in the light, and so there is nothing in us that will cause someone else to sin. But if we hate others, we are in the darkness; we walk in it and do not know where we are going, because the darkness has made us blind.” 1 John 2:9-11 GNT
Believers either love or hate. There is no middle ground. People who say they in the light but hate their brother are bathed in darkness. When hate enters a room, the lights quickly dim and then cut to black.
On the pole’s other end are spiritually-mature believers who understand the deity of Christ and have fully accepted their own depravity. Importantly, they have also forcefully embraced God’s love, the greatest commandment that is elevated above everything else in Scripture.
As the apostle of love, John plays an instrumental role in all of this because love is the benchmark of salvation fully manifest. There is at least a little irony here because John’s heart was not naturally soft. It had been flattened and tenderized by what God had done is his life. We can take much out of that and apply it to our own faith walk.
If a believer has truly been regenerated and transformed, they will cling to God’s light, obey him in all things, and love others.
I ask God for continual regeneration and transformation by his love and light so I can obey him n all things and love others.
“The people who live in darkness will see a great light. On those who live in the dark land of death the light will shine.” Matthew 4:16
HOW ABOUT YOU?
What thoughts do the words hate, light, and love conjure up in you today?
