Committed Any Murders Lately?

 

This question is more serious than it is satirical. This question will cause a professing Christian to check their heart. It should be obvious from the title that the writer is not talking about an actual murder. I am talking about murder of the heart. This is a matter Jesus relayed to His audience when He taught His sermon on the mountain in Matthew chapters 5-7.

           

 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you,   love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who   spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes     His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those  who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet  your brothers only, what do you do more than the others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?    Therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your Heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:43-48).

 

Before the above verses, Jesus said this, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without cause (italics mine) shall be in danger of judgment’ (Matthew 5:21-22). What Jesus is explaining here is that not only is murder wrong and a sin, so is being angry with your brother without just cause for that anger. The latter is murder of the heart. The internal hatred against someone is still sinful although an actual murder did not occur.

The Apostle John in 1 John 3:13-15 provides this sobering and warning and truth, “Do not marvel my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”  The Greek word for murderer is anthropoktonos which means manslayer.

To put it in laymen’s terms, a person who hates Christians and claims salvation is a liar. They are not actually saved. They are of the spirit of wicked Cain who killed his brother Abel because of jealousy (1 John 3:12; Jude 11). We read in 1 John 4:20-21, if someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him; that he who loves God must love his brother also.”

John is teaching us that our love for God is in direction connection to how we love our brother and sister in Christ. If you have any animosity toward someone in the body of Christ, make every effort to reconcile with that person sooner than later. This insight I am sure is new and radical revelation to Christians who are young in the faith. It is especially challenging to woke evangelicals and social justicians[1] who worship their melanin more than God who they claim to love. Their blackness is a religious tribalism that all blacks must adhere to if one is to be truly for black people. For Blacktivists if you are not down for the Black “Race” and all its causes, even the ungodly ones, you’re a sellout and a coon. Blackness as a religious construct is a golden calf that must be incinerated in the Church of Jesus Christ. Regardless of our ethnic background and differences, we are one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28). When your ethnicity super cedes your Christianity, the devil has trapped you. Stop worshipping your Black or White skin. None of us had nothing to do with how we were born; God is the one that did it. We all should be proud of our ethnicity, but we must never idolize it. Melanin does not talk, walk, see, hear, or feel.

So, the challenge for those who profess to be Christians but hate someone because of the color of their skin – this vitriol is usually between black and whites, then you must examine yourselves to see if you are actually a Christian (2 Cor 13:5).

Even in the Church we are going to offend each other. We are fallen people in a world full of sin. When we sin against each other, and it is brought to our attention, we must apologize. The one offended must be quick to forgive so that God will forgive their trespasses (Mark 11:25-26).

Examine yourself. Are you holding bitterness against your brother or sister? Be honest with yourself, do you hate that person?  If so, the Bible calls you a murderer and you are not even saved. You have only pretended to be (1 John 3:15). You must repent to God immediately to be cleansed of your unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Go and reconcile with that person(s). If they are unwilling and want to remain in unforgiveness, then you are free from guilt because you made the effort.  If you can reconcile with your brother or sister, then you have won them back – all is well.

 

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[1] A social justician is a black evangelical who professes to be a Christian but champions black causes like Black Liberation Theology above everything else. When black injustice is present like when a white police officer kills a black man or woman, their Christianity takes a back seat, and all their strength is put into making sure the white person is put in jail and the slain receive justice and or reparations. It does not matter if they have all the facts. In their minds the killing was racially motivated. Sadly, oftentimes it is. White people are still oppressors and any retribution they get is justified, even if they are Christian and forgiven by God. It does not matter to Black Activists. Their ancestors enslaved our ancestors, so they are guilty by proxy, so revenge is more important than forgiveness. The hypocrisy of many black people is in the area of abortion. Since 1973 when Roe v Wade was made law, over 20 million black babies have been killed through Planned Parenthood and other abortion centers https://www.foxnews.com/politics/abortions-since-roe-v-wade . 

Black people despise it when whites (especially white cops) kill blacks but are complicit when we kill each other in the womb. Even so-called black Pastors support abortion. God forgives us of sin continually when we genuinely repent to him. We must be willing to forgive one another – no matter the offense or skin color. Remember, all people are made in the image of God

 (Gen 1:27, 9:6; James 3:9) If we hate our brother or sister in our hearts, biblically we have committed murder. I also realize the hardness of the heart of men will refuse to forgive even when God’s truth is revealed to them. A person like that may be beyond prayer (1 John 5:16).