Should Christians be Filled with Hate?

Should Christians be Filled with Hate?

Today, hate is raging against those of non-Christian religions. A mosque has been attacked, and many people killed. In WWII, Hitler raged a war of hate, torture, and genocide against the Jews. Today, it is against Muslims. And I have to wonder, how many of these hate-filled people, many of whom claim to be Christians, have read the New Testament recently? Has it escaped their notice, the fundamental messages that Jesus came to teach?

Let’s look at what Jesus did for us first of all. He was Jewish, as were all his disciples and those he taught. He clearly states that he came to turn the Jewish leaders and people away from the errors in their thinking and actions, and back to God. Jesus was clearly the Messiah, and it was rejection of Him by religious leaders who had become corrupt that caused the majority of Jews to not follow Him. The religious leaders clearly wanted to maintain their power, control of the people, status, and wealth, more than they wanted to do God’s will.

What did Jesus do? First of all, he himself prayed constantly. He prayed to God His Father. He taught US to pray to God the Father. While he said that you could ask God for things in Jesus name, his example was to pray to God. His message was to tell and demonstrate to people that the power of God had come down among them. He stated that he could only do what His Father demonstrated. Jesus healed the sick, He raised the dead. He taught about the kingdom of God. He taught that God was love, and compassion. He had a huge amount of compassion for the poor, the widows, and the orphans. He said the greatest commandments were to love God, and to love your neighbor as yourself.

The time had come when civilization, and the Jewish people, were moving from being a herding people to being ‘city’ people. The timing was excellent for Jesus to come, for the Old Testament laws of complex animal sacrifice (which was the currency of a shepherding people), could not be maintained for much longer as the world became more modern. So Jesus came, to be the final sacrifice needed for the redemption of His people. It was only after Jesus was killed, that the teachings about God spread out to the gentiles. Christianity is ‘grafted’ onto the roots of a Jewish tree. Christians worship the same God that the Jews did. And it is my understanding that Muslims worship the same God as the Jews as well.

So shouldn’t we stop isolating ourselves from the poor, the widows, the orphans, and do as Jesus instructed us to do? Can’t we convert more people to wanting to follow the example that Jesus set by being an example of love, compassion, and kindness instead of hate? Hasn’t our own nation, which claims to be Christian, really gone very far away from the teachings of Christ? Isn’t it time to put a stop to this ugly, non-Christian behavior before it’s too late? For hate against others is sin. And we must ask God to forgive us of our sins, then we must change our way of being and do what Jesus instructed us to do!