Matthew 5:43–48 (NIV)
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

James 3:9–12 (NIV)
9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

Proverbs 17:17 (NIV)
17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.

A friend loves at all times. But what does that mean? 

Love seeks to bless and bring good to the life of the one who is loved. 

Hate seeks to curse and bring harm to the life of the one who is hated.

When I was in 4th grade, I had to write a report about Al Capone; part of growing up in Chicago, I guess. The thing that I still remember from that report was how so many people in the city appreciated Al Capone because of all of the ways he served his community. He would buy Christmas gifts for all of the kids in the low income areas and provide meals for those who were in need. However, he also ruthlessly murdered anyone who got in his way. He intensely loved and intensely hated.  

The question isn’t “Will you choose to love or will you choose to hate?”. Every person you have ever met or heard of, regardless of how evil they may have been, has chosen to love from time to time. Even the tax collectors and pagans do that. We have all chosen both love and hate. Everyone has an internal processor that places people in a category of “Us” or “Them”. Those who fall into the “Us” category get our love, and those who fall in the “Them” category get our hate.  

For those who follow Jesus, you are not given the luxury of choosing who you will love and who you will hate. There is no “Us and Them”. In fact, if you are going to follow Jesus you will have to do more than just choose love; you must also become a person of love. If God is love, and we are to be one with Him, then we must be transformed into people of love as well. We must become a fresh water spring from the river of living waters within (John 7:38). We have been grafted in and are the branches of a vine of love (John 15:5). This fresh spring of the Spirit can’t produce salt water and this vine of love won't bear hatred.

A friend loves at all times. 

Your Turn:

• You must ruthlessly eliminate the option of hatred toward any person. Not even one person. If you allow yourself the freedom to hate even a single person, it opens the door for hate to contaminate your soul. 

  • You don’t have to like them all, but you don’t get to hate them.

  • You can’t hate Trump. You can’t hate Newsom. You can’t hate your neighbor. You can’t hate your enemy. You can’t hate. 

  • This is going to be difficult. We live in a culture that has cultivated hate and made it a virtue.

  • Jesus has asked us to put down that tool and to find another way forward. 

  • You simply can’t celebrate the death or harm of any person created in the image of God.

• It isn’t enough to eliminate hate, you must cultivate love for everyone and be a friend to all.

  • Love those who love you. 

  • Love your family.

  • Love your brothers and sisters in Christ, not just in Antioch. 

  • Love your neighbor.

  • Love your enemy, the ones you don’t like.

  • Love the ones who hate you, or in other words, pray for those who persecute you. 

• Make a prayer list this week of the people you least want to pray for, and pray for them how you would want someone to pray for you.

  • Pray for them at least once every day. 

  • Ask God to give you a heart of love for them so that you may pray for them and mean it.