Hatred By Any Name

"It takes only a drop to poison the entire body of water."

THE KING DIDN’T build a castle. He built a temple. And He didn’t build a piece of golden architecture to house Himself in, but He housed Himself in people, in you and me. He’d rather have bodies, He’d rather have living stones and moulded hearts, He’d rather hear voices lifted in worship than ten thousands of angels in servitude. He gave up His glory to have me. You. Us.

There is no place in Him for racism. His death and Resurrection closed the door to it for good. In Christ, the Anointed One and His anointing in us and upon us, there are not Jews and Gentiles, male or female, barbarian, Scythian, or free (Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11). We cannot put our culture, our heritage, our upbringing ahead of Him. We cannot paint Him black and white, red and green, nor any other pattern. He is a Jew, a son of David, of Judean heritage, but He is God, the Ancient of Days who has always been. And the God who has always been died for all mankind to recreate them, as new people, and unify them forever.

Strife and division are an open door to the enemy. The devil inserts them then divides men, causing us to choose sides. There is only one side—God’s—and we must be fully on it to walk in His kingdom, to partake of His glory. What God wants to do will fall incomplete when we allow color or accent or food preferences to become greater than the love of God. There is no color choice in holiness and righteousness. Who do you pray for? Just the white people? Us four and no more? You consider some irredeemable and give many reasons. But there is no reason to eliminate someone from the kingdom of God who our Messiah, Jesus Christ, suffered and died for. He bears the scars of hatred. Yet a Roman centurion called Him the Son of God, and a Jewish Pharisee wrote to non-Jews. And a Jewish fisherman had a unifying vision. Would we were all Marilyn Hickey, an American woman, who shares Jesus with avid Muslims.

But the divide is in our hearts, and our mental separation soon becomes a canyon’s distance. It takes only a drop to poison the entire body of water, and it would remain so except for the Spirit’s cleansing. The fountain is available and a change of heart and mind. God would we were all His and not placed in self-labeled columns. It is the church body as a whole that preaches the gospel, that spreads the Word of the kingdom, and not individual denominations and nations of demons. We should not be the devil in disguise but the Savior in glorious splendor, not in pride of placement because “I am more than you,” but that I love you and give you preference for simply being His.

Hatred by any name gives the devil steps to take. Call it pride, it divides. Call it strength, it is weakness. Call it by any known reason, and it is merely an excuse. The God who knows the thoughts and intents of our heart sees this for what it really is and knows why we feel so, where we were deceived, and He desires us to be free of it. We should walk into a room and see people, see the love of God for people, and embrace all of them, our only thought how beautiful they are. The more we dwell on what is different, the more we focus on thoughts about types of clothing and music styles and differing ages and habits, the less we focus on Him who matters. He is our worship. Anything else becomes a stronghold, a fortress we will be forced to hide behind to our eventual failure.

Do we hear His voice speaking or our own? And is it Sunday morning or Wednesday night? How valuable is He? He is love personified and we are living sacrifices. This is how it should be, and those around us brothers and sisters, children of God, as graced by Him as we are. Criticism should be the last words on our tongue. Selfishness disguised as race relations, not even in view. There is no other point-of-view but God’s, and He died for everyone, for the entire world. We must see this on repeat and not any other truth in any other gospel but the one He’s written. He’s it.

He lives. We die and are reborn as part of Him. All of Him. The robe and the thorns. Cavalry boots and Jesus sandals.

“I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.” (Romans 1:14)

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” (Galatians 6:15)

“Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.” (Ephesians 6:8)

Photo by Amirreza Amouie on Unsplash


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com