Hate is a strong word that we’re all very familiar with. But the thing about hate is that it doesn’t just come out of nowhere. It’s always justifiable. It always comes from a place where it feels either grieved, or it feels that its actions or its response is always necessary.
Hate will always be justifiable either to a group of people, or any individual who has experienced some form of harm, or felt they were treated unfairly. So, what does God actually tell us about hate? God tells us the opposite, we must treat those people that hate us with love because that’s His way.
Oftentimes in humanity, we’re faced with different things that will definitely grieve us. We must never forget that we have a God who sees these things consistently every single day, but yet still chooses to love us.
The scriptures in John 13:34-35, read this, ‘I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love and unselfish concern for one another.’
Like I said, everything is justifiable. If Jesus Himself had retaliated on the cross, then we would have known the wrath of God ourselves, because it would have been justifiable. Anything that would have occurred to us as human beings after that could have been no reason for us to even try to curse God because we know what we did. Our sins in this world are something that we can’t fight for ourselves. No matter how many ways we group ourselves, we must always understand that we are a fallen world. None of us is perfect.
Now, the thing is, does this justify any work? No. That’s why justice is important. For any justice system to be able to work it has to be able to respect each case individually, because if you’re going to use justice, and mob people together, understand that all those people have individual stories, background, and things that they’ve dealt with. And not everyone is the exact same way.
Where I come from, I might be Zambian but that does not tell the same story for everyone else. In the same way, if someone is from another nation, that does not mean that they’re exactly like everyone else…
Every single one of us, with the people that we encounter, the ones that we call our friends, our family, we must understand that everyone has a story to tell. And at the end of the day, when we feel hate rising up, we must understand what would love do? Love does also deal justly. Love can also take someone to the court system and give them due process, and make sure that everyone is given a fair trial. But at the end of the day, that love does not retaliate with pain. Love does not retaliate out of anger to cause harm, because harm has been costly to us.
We must be like God, I know it’s a long journey, and it’s a hard push. Even I have failed countless times, but the truth is, we can’t do it alone. Life was never meant to be lived alone. That’s why every single one of us will put into something that is able to help, nurture us into growth, and it’s not always perfect, but it’s called family. We must always be able to perceive each other like that – every individual that you encounter on the street on the road, understand that they come from a family, where someone held them in their arms on the day of the birth and felt that this person had all the world at their feet, this person could achieve anything. Somewhere along the line, we often lose that vision because maybe life hits us too hard. And we end up making different decisions. Some of us have made decisions that have cost us our freedom. Today, some of the nations that we have are growing nations. We who have been around for a long time, or some of us who are still growing, have much to learn from each other.
Every single one of us in this continent must be able to understand that on the soil that we’re born from, we have a purpose to unite. We have a purpose to work together, to believe in each other. If we accuse each other of something, we must hold each other accountable.
In Africa, we are told that it takes a village to raise a child. Well, that village has grown bigger. It now has buildings around it. There’s the internet, but this also gives us better opportunity to be able to communicate the teachings that we all hold dear. We must not forget the fact that we must walk in love, consistently, under all circumstances.
I hope that everyone out there understands that we all have a part to play, in our troubles, and also in our victories. I hope at the end of the day we’ll be able to see the sun when we do come out of this dark cloud. Thank you.
Find the visual version of Abel’s message on the above subject here
