Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Whoever says, ‘I am in the light’, while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness.”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, July 1, 2024
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Hate can be active or passive. It can mean being openly hostile to someone or something, or just having strong feelings of aversion to them. Just because we aren’t demonstrating our hatred through physical, emotional, or verbal violence doesn’t mean we’re somehow exempt from holding people in contempt. That goes for someone who intensely dislikes another person because of their political views, religious beliefs, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic state, or absolutely any reason whatsoever. If we are completely honest with ourselves, we will see that there are people or groups that raise antipathy in us, and that we justify our feelings by painting them as “wrong”. But what I read in 1 John here is that this just doesn’t fly. We cannot say that we are followers of Jesus and still harbor these secret (or not-so-secret) hatreds for our siblings (which means everyone, not just the people we like or who agree with us).
Can anyone, then, claim to be “in the light?” Honestly, I would say “no.” All I can claim is that I am groping toward the light with the help of a God who loves me as I am, forgives me where I fall short, and cheers me on in my efforts to be and do better. I do not beat myself up when I am confronted with my unconscious biases or open complicity in injustice. But I do ask God to help me discern appropriate action and take necessary steps to change. God calls us into the light—God’s light, in Christ Jesus—and is leading and guiding us toward it, and is also leading and guiding every single one of our siblings toward it, too.
If I am completely honest with myself, who do I find that I secretly hate?
