from one of the NIV translators, is “you bastard!” Or other ‘B’
words. That is really the sense here — offensive, angry and
contemptuous all together.
Isn’t that the heart of murder? Hate and contempt.
It is hate
that motivates me to end you.
It is contempt for you, your life,
and maybe the consequences.
It is contempt that gives per-
mission to end you.
Contempt for the image of God in you and
contempt for the fact that you are His.
The Antidote to Murder
So how do we do this? How do we stop murdering? How do
we stop hating? We don’t get to stop people doing things that
make us angry. We also don’t really get to stop or control our
emotional reactions. The Spirit does that within us…but how
do we participate, how do we heal from hate, what does
repentance and change look like.
What does righteousness look like? The whole point of the Ten
Commandments is to teach us righteousness: to teach us to
Love the Lord, our God, with all our heart, mind and strength
and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Fortunately for us, the greatest teacher gave us some practical
application. Immediately after Jesus pierced straight to the
heart of the commandment, the hate and contempt at the
heart of murder, he says this:
Matthew 5:23-24
23
So if you are offering your gi at the altar and there remember
that your brother has something against you,
24
leave your gi
there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your
brother, and then come and offer your gi .
Elevate reconciliation to a ridiculous level. Escalate reconciliation.
This is not a new law but a model of how important reconciliation
becomes to the Kingdom heart. Reconciliation gets elevated
over worship. That is huge!
He goes on to say, on your way to the courthouse when getting
sued, the Kingdom person is the kind of person who, even
then, is still seeking reconciliation! You’re not even the one
with the hate issue in these scenarios! You just remember,
maybe you just suspect, that you have offended a brother such
that they might be hating you, holding something against you.
“Well, that’s their problem, they’ll have to work that out. That’s
between them and God, I did what I had to do…” That’s what
we say.
Elevate reconciliation. Escalate reconciliation.
What if I have something against them, do I wait for them to
obey this commandment, already? No! Jesus holds up the
harder model as the example. The kind of Kingdom person who
does that is so much quicker to seek reconciliation when he is
the one with the hate and contempt — quick to forgive, quick
to seek forgiveness.
The antidote to hate is reconciliation: for you and in you; for
others toward you. Loving your neighbor as yourself means
that, as desperately as you want that person who wronged you
to come and acknowledge and beg your forgiveness, you go
and reconcile yourselves to any who have something against
you. It depends on you: as far as you can go towards humbling
yourself; taking responsibility for anything you can; listening for
and searching out those you may have wronged; and certainly,
forgiving those who have wronged you.
You excise hate and contempt from your heart. Or rather, the
Holy Spirit cuts it out of you. This is the process by which He
does so: you are saved and sanctified by the blood of Jesus —
hate and contempt have no hold on you; you have the divinely
gifted ability to search out relationships where hate and con-
tempt may grow — within you or within others toward you;
you have the divinely gifted ability to offer the ministry of
Reconciliation. Forgiveness. Restoration. Hope.
Reconciliation Among Us
It starts among us. The focus here has been on your brother. If
you cannot love your brother whom you can see, how can you
love God whom you cannot see? If you hold hate and contempt
towards your brother…or if you even suspect you have done
something to a sister that just might foster hate and contempt
toward you…find them. Seek them out. Seek reconciliation.
“I am sorry, I think I said something that offended you.”
“Please forgive me, I acted thoughtlessly.”
It is important enough that, if something has occurred to you,
you should get up now and go make a phone call. Go, drive,
and have a conversation.
Elevate reconciliation. Escalate reconciliation.
Do this so that all might know that we are disciples of Jesus,
the greatest Man who ever lived, the greatest Lover who ever
lived, the greatest Forgiver who ever lived, the greatest Recon-
ciler who ever lived, who is our Righteousness.
We become a people among whom there is no murder, no hate
and no contempt…only transformative love.
Top Ten Words: Murder and Hate
continued from previous page...
How do we stop murdering? How do we stop hating?
22
January 2016 • SR
SR
