Tuesday, July 3rd, 2018

The animosity with which people operate in the political sphere today is alarming at best. Between calls for personal attacks, name calling, wishing ill upon politicians and their family, or the countless other cases of extreme rhetoric, hate is making a comeback in the US and is being welcomed by many on both sides of the political aisle. Normalizing such behavior not only gives the devil a foothold in our minds, it also shuts the door on Jesus. It doesn’t matter if we never miss a Sunday at church or read our Bibles everyday; if hate has a room to live in our heart, Jesus doesn’t live there, too. Put another way, to hold hate in your heart against anyone is to reject Jesus. In John, Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” One of the commandments, actually the second greatest of all, is to love our neighbors as ourselves. Today, make the choice to evict hate from your heart and welcome Jesus into every room.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” — John 14:15 ESV