1 John 3:11-15
Verse 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.
The story of Cain and Abel is the original sibling rivalry. Men raised by the same parents and yet walking different paths. While this example shows two natural brothers, the same can be true in the church family. Just because we have grown up in the same faith community doesn’t mean we will all see eye to eye on everything.
While we joke about arguments over paint color or music style the truth is sometimes it is the insignificant things which cause us to rub each other the wrong way. The lesson we should get from those first brothers is there needs to be a limit on how we deal with those disagreements. Of course Cain took extreme measures to get rid of his opponent but we need to remember that Jesus said speaking hatefully towards someone is worthy of hell (Matthew 5:21-22).
Jesus wanted His followers to understand that while actions speak louder than words, words speak the truth of one’s heart. If we can’t think lovingly about someone, we can know we don’t love them even if we say so with our lips. Sometimes those thoughts don’t stay as our own. It is so easy to “blow off steam” with a friend, telling them everything we see wrong with that other person. This is another way we can be unloving to a brother or sister.
In fact, when we spout off to a friend we are not only doing an unloving thing to the person we don’t like, we are not being loving to the friend we are asking to carry this hate with us. Whether we are living our hate out loud or trying to hide it, it is known and will show up somewhere, somehow in our lives, and probably not how we want it to.
That’s the thing about hate, it will always show itself eventually. Cain may not have set out to kill his brother that day but because he had been allowing hateful thoughts to fester in his heart, he came to his breaking point. The more we think about the things we want to say or the things we want to do to someone, the more likely we are to do them in an unguarded moment, and we all have those times in our lives.
Making It Personal
Whose name pops up when discussing hate? What do you need to do to change that into loving thoughts of them? Why should it matter what your heart says about your relationship with that person?
Making It Personal Kids
Who do you have mean thoughts about? Should you have those thoughts about them? What would Jesus want you to do about those thoughts?
Closing Prayer
Father, we admit we don’t have the most loving thoughts towards everyone. Give us hearts which are gracious and teach us to love as we should. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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