'DOES THE BIBLE PROMOTE HATRED?'

Rev. Canon George Sinclair

by Rev. Canon George Sinclair                           

 Pastor of the Church of the Messiah, Ottawa, ON.
 www.messiahchurch.ca 

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(Podcast of CFRA broadcast on Sunday, October 27th, 2013)  

http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/16824/good_news_076_oct27.mp3

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Broadcast Notes:

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‘Does the Bible Promote Hatred?’

 

Some people say that the Bible promotes hatred.

Look at Psalm 139, verses 19-22:

¹⁹ Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
    O men of blood, depart from me!
²⁰ They speak against you with malicious intent;
    your enemies take your name in vain!
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
    And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
²² I hate them with complete hatred;
    I count them my enemies.

Then the psalmist ends with (v. 23-24):

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart!
    Try me and know my thoughts!
²⁴ And see if there be any grievous way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting!

It’s interesting that the psalmist, David, recognizes that there is part of him – the hatred-- that is not of God, so he asks God to search his heart and lead him in the way everlasting.

I ultimately believe that the Bible contains the most wisdom (of any book) in dealing with hatred.

Realize that hatred is a human problem, not a Christian problem. If you acknowledge that hatred is a human problem, the question becomes a different one.

The question then becomes: Does your philosophy, or ideology, or religion or in fact, the Bible lead on a path of wisdom toward others who are different, and guide us to avoid hatred of other people who are different?

Does it ignore hatred? Does it deny hatred? Does it inflame hatred? Does it rationalize hatred?

Or, does it provide wisdom and maybe some type of solution into hatred?

The Bible is a profoundly wise book and gives profound wisdom. Even this text is an example of wisdom.

If you use this text to rationalize your anger, if someone cuts you off when you’re driving or steps in front of you at the Tim Horton’s coffee line-up, then you have a real problem, because this text is not about that.

But, are there any types of social contexts where human interaction creates emotions that make some sort of sense like that?

What about some of the horrendous abuses, where violent acts of people against other people, or regimes against other regimes, occur?

Here’s the thing: The Bible fully- addresses the depth and breadth of all human emotions.

The Bible doesn’t teach ‘care bear’ Christianity. The Jesus way is not just for the successful. It’s not just for the healthy. It’s not just for the young. It’s not just for those who live in safety and security.

It’s also for people who have really good reasons to be angry. And where there is a person who is abused and she, or he, can read that text and say, “God knows this about me, too! God knows this about me. He sees!”

Too many of us, when our church portrays ‘care-bear’ Christianity and when really, really, hard things take place in our lives, we think we have no place in the Christian church, or in following Jesus, because everyone around us just seems to be vanilla and Teflon, and successful, and well adjusted; and look at us; look at me!

So, the Bible does more than this. At one level it shows it’s aware of the depths and breadth of human emotion, but it also gives a whole-world view to start to restrain it and make sense of it, and even to redeem it.

If you go back and read the whole Psalm , it’s not saying that I should go out and deal with all these people. It’s asking that God deal with it.

That very, very aspect of putting it in God’s hands is, in fact, a profound protection from acting out of hate.

If you meditate upon this, it’s asking God to do something, not us. It’s not saying, “Because of all these things, I’m going to take my sword and take my gun, and I’m going to deal with this.” It’s actually, by acknowledging the depth, and calling out to God to do something in a “way of everlasting life” is in, and of, itself, a profound check on acting out of anger.

But, the Bible also teaches something else, which is a profound check, and it’s the part just before the part we read, (verses 19-22). Read with me, if you will, verses 13-18, where the psalmist, David, is talking with God:

¹³ For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
¹⁴ I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
    the days that were formed for me,
    when as yet there was none of them.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
    I awake, and I am still with you.

Here’s what this teaches: I am known of God from conception. So, from conception, to now, I have had a dignity and a value as a human being, regardless of what apparent regime, race, ideology, and institutions say about me. This Psalm is telling me that I am known and loved by God from conception, regardless of what others think or say about me.

This has profound meaning for those who labour and live under the hatred of others. It’s a profound comfort because when we labour under hatred, we can start to feel shame, as though there is something fundamentally wrong with us, or about us. So this is a powerful healing perception about the fact that we have this dignity as a human being that comes from God.

But, it’s also a profound check, because it means that the person hating us ALSO has a dignity and a value.

It’s one of the reasons Christians are told to pray for our enemies, (Matthew5:44).

This Psalm tells us even more about God, in Verses 1-12:

139 O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
² You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from afar.
³ You search out my path and my lying down
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
⁴ Even before a word is on my tongue,
    behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
⁵ You hem me in, behind and before,
    and lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
    it is high; I cannot attain it.
⁷ Where shall I go from your Spirit?
    Or where shall I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
    If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
⁹ If I take the wings of the morning
    and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and the light about me be night”,
¹² even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light with you.

There is this wonderful sense of God’s presence and peacefulness and of His beauty and affection and delight in all-seeing and all-present. Hatred easily overwhelms us, which is why it’s one of the things we should avoid, which we normally need to repent of and seek God’s help.

But, in this Psalm, we’re asking God to be the one who’s going to act, then, God is forming our response. And, if God is forming our response, then he is forming it out of this whole perspective and world view.

But, there’s also a text here that speaks about the cross. This text talks about how God wonderfully knows us from the time of our conception to the moment of our death, and beyond. And, so what this is saying is that it gives us a real insight as to what Jesus accomplishes for us on the Cross: that when Jesus dies for us on the Cross, he’s not just dying for the “me” that I know now; He’s not just dying for me and the things that I remember about my past, but when He dies for me, He knows and sees me from my conception to my death. And, when He takes upon himself the doom that I deserve, and offers me the destiny that He deserves, He sees the full total depths of me from the moment of my conception to my death.

That’s what this Psalm is all about. This Psalm is saying that God has this pure knowledge of us and it means that it is a profound help in our deep emotions, about our past, the things that we don’t like, that we hate, that we find abhorrent, because, if Jesus knows all about this –nothing surprises him—and still he loves us, and still he died upon the Cross; still He wants us to come to him and offers us to take upon himself, my doom, your doom, and offer us His destiny. That’s what he wins for us on the Cross.

Jesus dies for whole me, from my conception to death, from the depths to the shallows, with nothing left out.

Here’s a prayer we can pray, in closing:

Dear God, Help me to be so gripped by the story of Jesus’ death for me, that I grow in a humble, trusting knowledge of the greatness of Jesus, to save me immediately, eternally, completely, perfectly, and unfailingly.

 Rev. Canon George Sinclair

Church of the Messiah

www.messiahchurch.ca
613-235-0596
messiahchurch.office@gmail.com

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To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link:
http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/16824/good_news_076_oct27.mp3

'FRIENDSHIP'

Rev. Juliet Schimpf By Rev. Juliet Schimpf    Rev. Juliet Schimpf  is the Minister of  First Baptist  Church in Perth, Ontario: http://www.perthareachurches.ca/baptist_perth_A.htm

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LINK to CFRA broadcast of Sunday, January 13^th, 2013)
http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/10677/good_news_035_jan13.mp3

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Broadcast Notes:

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‘Friendship’

ON FRIENDSHIP:

1.       CHOOSING OUR FRIENDSHIPS

2.      CHECKING OUR FRIENDSHIPS

3.      CHANGING OUR FRIENDSHIPS

4.      CHERISHING OUR FRIENDSHIPS

Genesis 2:18  The first thing that is “not good” is that we are alone.  God wants us in relationship and community because that is how He exists—namely, in community.

In 1937, the number one nonfiction title was Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, and since then, millions of copies have been sold around the world.  Why?  Because just about everybody has “people problems” and needs advice on how to solve them. 

The book of Proverbs is the best manual you’ll find on people skills because it was given to us by the God who made us.

C.S. LEWIS  “The next best thing to being wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are.”

1.       CHOOSING OUR FRIENDSHIPS

Proverbs 12:26 NIV ^“The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.”
 

1 CORINTHIANS 15:33  Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

TIPS:

a.    AVOID ANGRY PEOPLE  

·         PROVERBS 22:24-25  “Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared.”

b.    AVOID GOSSIPS:  

·         PROVERBS 16:28  “A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends.”

c.    SEEK SOMEONE WHO BRINGS OUT THE BEST IN YOU:  

·         PROVERBS 27:17  “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

d.    SEEK SOMEONE WHO HAS YOUR BEST INTERESTS AT HEART: 

·         PROVERBS 18:24  “One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

5. SEE SOMEONE WHO LOVES YOU AS THEY LOVE THEMSELVES  

·         David and Jonathan  1 Samuel 18:1-3 “As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.”

2.      CHECKING OUR FRIENDSHIPS

Proverbs 27:19   "A mirror reflects a man's face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses."

Proverbs 3:32

“You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.” 

a. FAKE FRIENDS

Proverbs 20:6  “Many describe themselves as people of faithful love, but who can find someone really to be trusted?”

Proverbs 19:6  “Many seek the favour of the generous and everyone is a friend to a giver of gifts.”

b. PAINFUL FRIENDS: 

Proverbs 25:18-20

^18 “Like a club or a sword or a sharp arrow
    is one who gives false testimony against a neighbor. 
¹⁹ Like a broken tooth or a lame foot
    is reliance on the unfaithful in a time of trouble.
²⁰ Like one who takes away a garment on a cold day,
    or like vinegar poured on a wound,
    is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.”

c. EVIL FRIENDS

Psalm 1:1 ESV

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers…”

d. TRUE FRIENDS

Proverbs 27:6  “Well meant are the wounds a friend inflicts, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.”

Proverbs 17:9  “Whoever forgives an offence fosters friendship; whoever raises the matter again divides friends.”

·         Elijah and Elisha   2 Kings 2:2 “Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Please stay here, for the LORD has sent me as far as Bethel.’ But Elisha said, ‘As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.’  So they went down to Bethel.”

3.      CHANGING OUR FRIENDSHIPS

NIV PROVERBS 12:15  “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice—let’s listen to the advice of Proverbs.”

AMOS 3:3  "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" 

2 Corinthians 6:14  “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? ¹⁵ What harmony is there between Christ and Belial^[b]? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? ¹⁶ What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

“I will live with them
and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they will be my people.”

¹⁷ Therefore, “Come out from them
and be separate,
says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing,
and I will receive you.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

PROVERBS 13:20  NIV “Walk with the wise and become wise,
for a companion of fools suffers harm.”

ECCLESIASTES 4:12  “And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken—in my friendships, there must be room for Jesus (I can’t a meaningful friendship in which I am ashamed to bring up His name).”

4.      CHERISHING OUR FRIENDSHIPS

HELEN KELLER:  "Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light."

ECCLESIASTES 4:9 “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. ¹⁰For if they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help.”

THE IMPORTANCE OF FRIENDS”

One of the most thorough research projects on relationships is called the Alameda County Study. Headed by a Harvard social scientist, it tracked the lives of 7,000 people over nine years. Researchers found that the most isolated people were three times more likely to die than those with strong relational connections. 

People who had bad health habits (such as smoking, poor eating habits, obesity, or alcohol use) but strong social ties lived significantly longer than people who had great health habits but were isolated. In other words, it is better to eat Twinkies with good friends than to eat broccoli alone. Harvard researcher Robert Putnam notes that if you belong to no groups but decide to join one, “you cut your risk of dying over the next year in half.” 

For another study, as reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 276 volunteers were infected with a virus that produces the common cold. The study found that people with strong emotional connections did four times better fighting off illness than those who were more isolated. These people were less susceptible to colds, had less virus, and produced significantly less mucous than relationally isolated subjects. (I’m not making this up. They produced less mucous. This means it is literally true: Unfriendly people are snottier than friendly people.)   [Taken from Ortberg, John (2008-04-01). Everybody’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them (p. 33). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.]

PROVERBS 27:9  NIV ^“Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart,
and the pleasantness of a friend springs from their heartfelt advice.¹⁰ Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family, and do not go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes you—better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away.”

But of all the friendships we could possible develop, none can excel the one we can 

have with Him who truly "sticks closer than a brother" – our Lord Jesus Christ!

Romans 5:10  “For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.” 

Have you become His friend?  Consider what He has done for us...

               "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life

                  for his friends." (Jn 15:13)

Consider what He asks of us...

   "You are My friends if you do whatever I command you."  

 (John 15:14)  

Let’s take a moment to pray:

Our gracious and Heavenly Father, we thank you that in your wisdom, and in your generosity, you created friendship. We thank you Lord for our friends; and we just ask this very hour, that you will continue to help us to choose our friends wisely.

We also ask that you will help us check our friendships from time-to-time, and not settle for mediocrity, to not settle for sinfulness, but to seek out friendships that are God-honouring.

And God, I pray for the listener who’s heard this message this morning and knows in the depth of their heart that they need to change their friends.

They know that they’ve been hanging out with bad company and they know that it is corrupting their character. I pray, right now, Lord, that you will give them the strength to cut those ties, to change their friendships. Would you help that listener, this hour?

And lastly, Lord we want to cherish our friendships. Would you help us to express that gratitude to friends this week, this month, this year?

And God, finally, we thank you that you have offered yourself to us. You want to be our friend, and I pray for the listener who has not yet made you their personal friend.

I pray for the listener who wants friendship with God; who wants friendship with Jesus Christ. I pray, Lord, that you will fill their heart this hour, and that you will become the lover of their soul.

We pray all this in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Amen.

Rev. Juliet Schimpf

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To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link:

http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/10677/good_news_035_jan13.mp3