A Hateful Disagreement?

[Given the date of this post and joining in with countless others, this is a response to the brutal murder of Charlie Kirk and the divisive climate we find America currently in.  May God have mercy on us all.]

Matthew 5:43-48:  (43) Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. (44) But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; (45) that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. (46) For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? (47) And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? (48) Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Unfortunately, it seems anymore people don’t realize or accept that it is actually possible for us to disagree with one another on certain issues without having to hate them. Hating someone should not be the starting point of any argument, debate, or conversation. We would do well to remember to treat others as we would like to be treated; in so doing, we could show the kindness, love, and respect we want to those we are tempted to call enemies instead of people. Author Evelyn Beatrice Hall stated in describing Voltaire’s attitude toward those who he disagrees with: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” It seems to me this is a very good definition of free speech. In the passage from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, He states what should be inherently obvious about human nature: If we only love those who love us, what reward do we have? It is easy to get along with those who think and act the same as we do, who love the same things and have the same viewpoints and attitudes. But if we want to truly live and truly love without hypocrisy we need to love not only our neighbor (those we are friendly with or friendly to us) but also our enemy (those we don’t like or don’t like us.) Jesus embodied this while here on Earth. He showed love, compassion, mercy, and respect to those His culture expected Him to hate: non-Jews, Samaritans, harlots, tax collectors, (notorious for demanding too much in taxes and keeping some of the money for themselves,) drunkards, even the self-righteous and those who came to hate Him. He said to turn the other cheek when someone hits you (or maybe we could also say, insults or demeans you), not blow their head off. He also said to bless them that curse you and do good to those that hate you. It is very rare in this day and age (at least in the public discourse) to see anyone blessing those that curse them or doing good to those that hate them. Instead, we as a society seem to be focused on not only drowning out those voices we don’t agree with but getting revenge for them offending us somehow and cheering on those who take this revenge and “drowning out” even to the extreme point of physical violence. Mass murderers have even tried to justify their evil actions and intentions by killing and injuring innocent children.

Jesus turned the other cheek to the point of giving up His life so we could have hope and freedom from our corrupt hearts with their wrong intentions, actions, and choices. He was mocked, beaten, chastised, and suffered the worst death this world will ever know so us undeserving humans could be free from our sins if we seek Him, repent, and confess Him as Savior and Lord. Yet people even mock this truth and belittle it, all the time rejecting any thought or voice of expression but their own. Instead of trying to outshout someone to make sure we get the last word or cancel someone’s voice because it is not what we want to hear, why not be quick to listen and slow to speak as the Apostle James said? In his epistle, chapter 1, verse 19 he said: “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” Notice his recommendations: be swift to hear and slow to speak; and what often happens when instead we are slow to hear and quick to speak to make sure our voice reigns supreme over any other? We are anything but slow to wrath- we become angry when our opinions, our complaints, our voiced desires are not the ones that are accepted, preferred, and affirmed. In a word, we can become wrathful.

Wrath is a dangerous thing when not handled appropriately. Likewise, so are our feelings of disagreement, our differences of opinions, and our reasons we use to try to justify hate. Everyone wants someone to listen to them, to acknowledge that their voice is important and worth hearing. This is only a natural human desire. And even if we do listen and respect their voice because they are a human being God chose to make, this doesn’t mean we have to agree with them. Yet, it also doesn’t mean that if we disagree with them that we have to hate them. We each have choices we can make, not only in what we say and how we say it, but also in how we respond to those we disagree with or those who disagree with us. Political correctness is a shallow and forced attempt to make people of different backgrounds and other differences care about each other. It doesn’t work but treating others as you want to be treated does. Loving your enemy can as well- at least on your part. The other person may still see you as an enemy because you won’t agree with them or support their choices, desires, or plans. They may even react with hatred or animosity toward you because you won’t give them what they want. But what does this solve and where does it end? With physical violence, murder, bitter hearts full of unforgiveness, spite, and ongoing hatred? More broken lives, including theirs that have become a never-ending misery since they couldn’t get their way?

Rejoicing over the demise or death of someone you deem an enemy is not something God will just wink at and say, “I understand.” Neither is hatred. God is love and made us for love- to love Him, to be loved by Him, and to love each other. The truth is that for those who enjoy the thought of their enemy dying, being killed, or even at least being silenced in some lesser way: you are never going to be satisfied unless you turn to the Lord and let His love change you. There will always be someone who disagrees with you, someone who offends you in some small or big way, who prevents you from getting what you want at one time or another. No one on this planet gets what they want all of the time. Sooner or later, the politics of this world will perish and we will have to face our Creator and explain our choices- including our choices to hate, to smile when our enemy dies, to try to justify our selfishness and thirst for vengeance, and our lack of compassion, mercy, and love. The haunting question to me is: When all of our words, choices, and lives are weighed in God’s scales, will we be found wanting?